Van Cleef & Arpels have an ongoing collection which they call ‘Cadrans Extraordinaires’. As the name suggests, the collection has watches with extraordinary dials. Last year Butterflies was their basic theme and most of the creations centered on them. This year also, for the ladies, the theme is based on animals with a focus on Arctic and Africa. Almost every dial qualifies as a work of art. Each one of them has hand-engraved 18k white gold figurines and scenery skillfully done using precious materials and complex processes.
The watches in this collection by Van Cleef & Arpels are 38mm wide in 18k white gold cases with diamond decoration throughout. The craftsmanship is of the highest order and it is evident that each piece has been crafted with great care devoting a lot of time. Some of the animal characters have come off better than the others, but the backgrounds are truly stunning in each and every piece. The color and depth are to be seen to be believed.
These watches by Van Cleef & Arpels will impress even those who aren’t artistically inclined. Another important thing is that though the theme is animal based it also has a mother and child concept. Each of these dials has a mother animal with her young hoping to remind the wearer of the watch about her children. Each design is limited edition with only 22 pieces produced. All the watches have manually wound Swiss mechanical movements.
Via: luxist
