These watches are beautiful, and celebrate the love of gardens all over the world. The
Van Cleef & Arpels Les Jardins watch collection starts with their manufacture made "quantièmes de saisons" movement that they released in 2006. The movement is unique in that is utilizes a disc plate as the back of the face that makes a full turn each 365 days. Meaning that the watch looks a little bit different each day of the year. Painted on enamel, are four garden varieties placed on the rotating discs. First is the Jardin romantique Anglais (for English gardens), the Jardin Italien (Italian gardens), Jardin à la Française (French gardens), and finally the Jardin d'Extrême-Orient (Oriental gardens). If you look closely at the colorful images you should be able to identify which is each. In front of the enamel discs are white toned cut-out frames that help enhance the daily imagery changes.
The watches are limited to 100 pieces each and constructed in 18k white gold. Mother of pearl lines the mechanical movement, while a diamonds stud the bezel and crown. The watch strap is white alligator. These watches are pure art pieces, and a testament to the ingenuity and creativity that French Van Cleef & Arpels is known for. For the lucky few, the bright imagery on these watches may help ease the melancholy colors of these difficult-for-luxury good times.
Ariel Adams publishes the
watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.