I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Van Cleef & Arpels make hands-down the nicest ladies’ watches. Going beyond just feminizing a men’s model by adding mother-of-pearl dial and a diamond-set bezel and/or case, the revered jewelry brand has added a poetic dimension to an otherwise “cold” piece of jewelry with it’s award-winning trademarked Poetic Complications pieces. But what about pieces destined for their male clientele?
At SIHH last month, the majority of journalists who stopped by Van clef & Arpels stand were captivated by the visually stunning and nearly impossible to photograph Midnight Planetarium (which I’ll review separately, but you can find a photo in my SIHH Day 4 post here) but my attention was drawn towards the simpler Pierre Aprels “Heure d’Ici & Heure d’Ailleurs”, a unique take on the travel time complication. Finally, Van Cleef & Arpels had something very interesting indeed for all us watch-loving guys out there.
Firstly I’ll apologize for my photos, which show the watch set with two identical hours/time zones. Hey, when you book a last minute meeting and have only 5 minutes to photograph a watch you’ve got to make due!
The Pierre Arpels collection dates back to 1949, yet the Heure d’Ici & Heure d’ailleurs is quite a departure from the purely classical pieces in that collection. Double Jumping hour windows provide an original take on the dual-time complication in a clean, uncluttered display. With a single retrograde minute hand shared by the two time-zones, the only drawback here is that you can’t independently set the time for time-zones that differ by fractions of an hour, like Iran (which coincidentally holds a special price for Van Cleef & Arpels, as Pierre Arpels traveled there frequently during the reign of the Shah to create the magnificent crown and coronation set for Empress Farah Pahlavi).
Another drawback is the lack of an AM/PM or day/night indicator, which would have been useful for figuring out the “home time” when you’re on the opposite side of the globe. But when you look at the clean, asymmetrical dial, it’s clear that adding any other indications would have taken away from the charming, minimalist design this was intended to be.
Keeping with its relatively toned-down and understated look, the Heure d’Ici & Heure d’Ailleurs comes in a very reasonably sized 42mm case, made of polished white gold. The crown is adorned with a brilliant cut diamond, a nod to the brand’s past as one of the greatest jewelers of the 18th century. The lugs have a certain vintage charm with their central element keeping the glossy black alligator strap on the horizontal bar lug.
Like the feminine Poetic Complications pieces, the backside of this watch is just as mesmerizing as the front. Van Cleef & Arpels have once again entrusted the movement to Agenhor, the movement specialist company created by the acclaimed Jean-Marc Wiederrecht. The movement features a bi-directional winding platinum micro-rotor, decorated with the same piqué motif as the dial. This helps keeps the movement and final watch pretty slim.
On the wrist the Pierre Arpels Heure d’Ici & Heure d’Ailleurs is an absolute delight to wear. It’s slim profile means that it can easily fit under a shirt cuff. The watches takes on a more poetic sense of voyage that other GMT/Dual-Time/World-Time watches often lack, and I have no doubt Pierre Arpels would have approved of this one. Best part is, this watch can actually be classified as unisex, so just tell your significant other that if you buy it he/she will get to enjoy it as well. That should make convince them!
The Pierre Arpels Heure d’ici & Heure d’Ailleurs comes with a sticker price of $41’000 USD.
More information on www.vancleefarpels.com
