Van Cleef & Arpels turns to the stars at Watches and Wonders 2026

At the heart of Van Cleef & Arpels’ watchmaking philosophy lies the concept of "Poetry of Time", where each creation becomes a narrative that evokes emotion, sparks imagination, and inspires a sense of wonder. 

At Watches & Wonders 2026, the maison turned to the heavens for inspiration, paying tribute to the celestial marvels that have long influenced its creations. As early as 1929, it designed a pocket watch fitted with a complication that displayed the different phases of the moon, and in the 1950s, it developed the Meteor secret watch. 

Turning its gaze once again to the night sky, the highlights of Van Cleef & Arpels’ 2026 novelties include the Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune, which brings together two complications housed within a single case. The first complication animates the maison’s signature Jour/Nuit (day-and-night) display, while the second “astronomical” complication illustrates the current phase of the moon. 

To evoke the night sky, the dial is rendered in black Murano aventurine glass. As time passes through the day, the guilloche golden sun gradually gives way to a moon rendered in white mother-of-pearl, surrounded by acrylic traced stars. Both the sun and the moon rise and fall behind a horizon represented by a guilloche mother-of-pearl shroud, painted in a gradient of shades from black to white. The poetic scene is driven by a 24-hour rotating disc, characteristic of the maison’s Jour Nuit creations. 

The narrative continues on the back of the case, where an engraving in white gold evokes the moon’s topography. Earth appears in enamel tracing on a sapphire crystal positioned atop the oscillating weight. The crystal is further adorned with hand-painted miniature planets, gently shimmering against a guilloche background.

The Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs watch shifts the attention to the romance of travel. This timepiece features a dual-time zone movement with double jumping hours and retrograde minutes. Housed within a 38mm rose gold case, the dial is finished in richly textured enamel, with warm brown tones that subtly shift with the light. 

The “Heure d’ici” (time here) is presented in the upper window, while the “Heure d’ailleurs” (time elsewhere) appears in the lower window. Both move simultaneously thanks to two sector gears that synchronise the discs and the retrograde minute hand. When the hand reaches 60 minutes on the graduated scale, it instantly returns to its starting point as the hour display jumps forward. For ease of use, a single crown is used to wind the movement and set both time zones as well as the minutes.