More than 75 timepieces and jewels by Van Cleef & Arpels will be on display at Cromwell Place, a gallery space in the South Kensington neighborhood of London, from May 26 to June 9. It will be the brand’s first watch-focused exhibition in Britain, according to Rainer Bernard, director of watchmaking research and development.
“Poetry of Time” will showcase heritage pieces alongside modern creations, including novelties introduced this month at the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva.
The free exhibition will begin with a display of older watches, jewels and archival documents. The oldest watch is from 1925 — a platinum, diamond and onyx bracelet watch that can also be worn on a lapel, Mr. Bernard said on a video call from the company’s manufacture in Meyrin, Switzerland, adding that the company’s watchmaking history began even earlier, in 1906.
The display then follows six themes he said were “dear to the maison”: astronomy, nature, dance, couture, love and luck. Some watches are classified as Poetic Complications — pieces that combine intricate mechanisms with whimsical design — and others as Extraordinary Dials, showcasing métiers d’art techniques.
A Poetic Astronomy section will include the newly introduced 38-millimeter Lady Arpels Jour Nuit and 33-millimeter Lady Jour Nuit watches, whose aventurine glass dials are adorned with diamond-set stars, sun and moon, constantly rotating to depict day or night.
The Enchanted Nature section will feature the new 38-millimeter Lady Arpels Brise D’Été automaton watch, in which white- and yellow-gold and enamel butterflies flutter between 3-D vallonné enamel flowers.
Other highlights, Mr. Bernard said, would include the 40-millimeter Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée watch from 2019, whose dial is decorated with an 18-karat white gold and diamond ballerina whose tutu transforms into butterfly wings to indicate the time. And the 38-millimeter Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux from 2022, which depicts two 18-karat white gold lovers sharing a kiss in the center of a bridge when the automaton function is activated.
The exhibition will end with the Perlée Pavilion, dedicated to the Perlée motif of golden beads that the brand has used in watches and jewelry since 2008.
Mr. Bernard said that Van Cleef & Arpels’ approach to watchmaking prioritized storytelling, designed to make the wearer pause to appreciate the present. He cited the Lady Arpels Heures Florales watch in the exhibition, saying, “In order to read the time, you have to count the flowers. You really have to slow down a bit.”
The exhibition’s scenographer Jean Baptiste Auvray will set the mood of being in an enchanted forest, via gilded lacquer panels and handmade Murano glass leaves from the Italian company Salviati, Mr. Bernard said.
The program will include a series of talks and events, including some hosted by L’École School of Jewelry Arts in Paris and live demonstrations by a Van Cleef & Arpels master enameler.