An ancient tale was told in China, across 2,000 years and more, about two stars separated by a river of silver. On one bank stands Zhinu, the weaver maid  known as the star Vega. On the other is Niulang, the cowherd known as the star Altair. They are mortals and deities, forbidden to love. Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, a bridge of magpies forms across the Milky Way, and for one night only, they reunite. A tale of longing, of cosmic distance, and of love so persistent it bends the very firmament.

That same story now beats at the heart of two new creations from Van Cleef & Arpels. In the Lady Rencontre Céleste and the Lady Retrouvailles Célestes, the maison has translated this ancient folktale into the language of its Extraordinary Dials collection, a realm where poetic astronomy and love stories have long been the twin poles of inspiration. Love, after all, is a founding source for Van Cleef & Arpels. It sets the joyous cadence of what it calls the Poetry of Time, a vision of watchmaking suffused with dreams and emotion.

This year, the theme provides the élan for a duet of dials. One watch captures the wistful encounter of the lovers, while the delight of their reunion. Together, they form a diptych of the formation and expression of love, through a consummate mastery of métiers d’art.

The Lady Rencontre Céleste watch is cast in a medley of four different blues with a 10 layer dial and white gold case. The couple appears with hands clasped, framed by a star studded sky, resembling the blossoming romance. Their white gold silhouette emerges behind sparkling clouds adorned with diamonds set in plique-à-jour enamel, a technique that permits light to pass through like stained glass. Their faces, suggested by rose-cut diamonds, are manifestly engrossed in mutual contemplation. Above them, the Moon glows softly, itself set with diamonds. The background of the dial, glazed in champlevé and grisaille enamel, is further embellished with a subtle sapphire crescent, its setting beads infused with colour through the miniature painting technique. The effect is one of a chiaroscuro and the depth of light held delicately in check.

The Lady Retrouvailles Célestes watch brings the same savoir-faire to life in gently glittering tones of pink and mauve, with 13 stacking layers to reveal the dramatic scene in a rose gold case. The background, fashioned in champlevé enamel, hints at the emotions harboured by the two characters as they stand before a crescent of mauve sapphires. Their arms are outstretched in longing, seemingly awaiting reunion across an aerial bridge of sculpted white gold birds. Clouds and veils in plique-à-jour enamel, and diamonds set in enamel round out the tableau, lending the scene striking transparency effects. 

On the reverse of the two versions, the case back is engraved with the correspondent Summer Triangle asterism which was formed by three of the firmament’s brightest stars, Altair, Vega and Deneb. On the Lady Rencontre Céleste, Altair shines brightest, while Vega claims the spotlight on Lady Retrouvailles Célestes.

To breathe life into these enchanting decors, Van Cleef & Arpels brings together several artistic crafts, each calling for exceptional skill. The champlevé enamel technique, used to adorn the background of both dials, consists of designing a motif via chambers carved in precious metal, which are then filled with several layers of enamel. The piece is then heated at very high temperatures in multiple steps.

On the Lady Rencontre Céleste model, the starry background was made by grisaille enamel, a savoir-faire developed in France from the 16th century, which draws forth the chiaroscuro and perspective effects by combining just two colours of enamel, capturing the moonlit glow with constellations.

Meanwhile, plique-à-jour enamel allows light to pass through the fabric of Zhinu’s gown, as though through a stained-glass window. The motif is outlined in an openwork gold structure and then filled with fine layers of enamel. This exacting technique imbues the dials with interplays of transparency that underscore the depth of the scene. On top of this technique, in 2023 the maison developed a method for gem setting in enamel, which applies diamonds directly on the plique-à-jour enamel that could be found on the clouds, depicting the drift and roll. This process generates a feeling of weightlessness that accentuates the glow of the precious stones.

Van Cleef & Arpels complements these ancestral methods with an innovative enamelling technique that accentuates the three-dimensional nature of the decors to provide an intricate depth to the delicate 33mm dials, a testament to the narration that the maison has mastered throughout its creations.