The secrets of Van Cleef & Arpels revealed by the number one of the company, Nicolas Bos, President and CEO of the brand. The interview was conducted by luxury-insider.com, an Asian site dedicated to the world of high-end products.
Nicolas BosContinuity is a big problem in the world of craftsmanship. After hundreds of years, companies that remain active want to continue their tradition and the market seems hungry for this kind of thing. We talk about it with Mr Nicolas Bos, President and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels. Who has managed to replace Stanislas de Quercize, who moved to the top of Cartier. Jokingly, we can say that Bos (pun intended: in English, boss means chief) certainly has the right name for his job. More seriously, he also has some very firm ideas about the importance of identity and continuity for contemporary luxury brands.
Bos has cultivated these ideas about using top brands since he joined the Richemont Group in 1992, initially with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. After the Group acquired Van Cleef & Arpels in 2000, Bos moved up the ladder and became the House’s creative and marketing director. Continuity, including in his new role as chairman and CEO, is entirely consistent with his long shared history with the company in its current form.
We’ve spoken with the House’s executives many times over the years about how they continue to bring creativity to watches and jewelry. Along with “poetic complications” in watchmaking and sumptuous jewelry, such as the iconic Zip necklace, Van Cleef & Arpels has a wonderfully distinctive array of beautiful objects in its catalog. Former CEO de Quercize said that the acronym VCA not only stood for Van Cleef & Arpels, but also for Very Creative Artists. As one of those artists, Bos has a deep understanding of the role of Van Cleef & Arpels but is quite different from the typical corporate man.
How did you get to the top of Van Cleef & Arpels?
I was vice president, responsible for different areas, and then I was responsible for the American market, as well as the creative director. Now it’s not that different for me; there was no change of strategy or a situation to heal… The presidency for me is really a question of continuity, because I’ve been at Van Cleef & Arpels for a long time. One thing that is different for me is the trip to Asia, and I’m very happy. That wasn’t the case when I was shown the headquarters in the United States.
Van Cleef & Arpels is very popular, with fans all over the world, including in Asia. Have you been able to develop your business because others have already paved the way for you?
Clients come to us after they have acquired a certain knowledge, a certain experience, which allows them to make a distinction in terms of quality. This kind of knowledge cannot be invented. And it is because the luxury market has been developed by global brands that are more accessible that this education exists… So customers can develop their taste and observe what international companies can propose. In this way customers decide that they want something less obvious, less visible, but perhaps more sophisticated… Maybe it is more of a pleasure for themselves.
In recent years, we see more lines like Perlee and Alhambra making a slightly different proposition to the customer. It’s an effort to diversify the business. How does that affect the unique proposition of Van Cleef & Arpels?
It doesn’t matter if it’s really exclusive. Again, it’s about the identity. We don’t just offer exceptional pieces of fine jewelry… From the early days of the house, from the days of the Zip necklace, there have been what we call boutique pieces, which were less complex and smaller: I’m talking about lines from the 1920s, before any contemporary marketing campaigns. The advertising at that time was about how customers could buy jewelry for everyday use. Coming back to the present, you can see how this is consistent with the identity of Van Cleef & Arpels. In the case of Alhambra, it’s more than 40 years old (it was created in 1968) and so it’s one of the dimensions of our House. In some markets, this is a good entry point, because of course the price is different and it’s just easier to wear. Today there are working women who want to wear something exceptional every day, but maybe not something very flashy, but with the same value as more formal pieces. I can’t even think of high jewelry clients who don’t wear Alhambra or Perlée… Also remember that our way of producing these jewels is the same as the more formal pieces, but an Alhambra necklace is less complex than, say, the Zip necklace. Again, one is a jewel for the day, maybe in the office, while the other is more for the evening: neither we nor the client see any contradiction.
The idea is that Van Cleef & Arpels offers extraordinary creations at all levels. But if everything is extraordinary, isn’t there a danger that nothing is really special?
Good question. First of all, there is a problem of language, because everyone uses the same words. Everything is extraordinary, unique, excellent, innovative and so on. Words sometimes lose their substance, but beyond words, I think there are emotions. It’s about going as far as possible on the quality of the stone, the perfection of the design, the expression of craftsmanship… It’s a valid question, but if each of our creations makes us feel something extraordinary, then we have achieved something extraordinary. It’s true that you can say if you look at our collections we have made incredible pieces, but that doesn’t diminish the sense when we create new objects. We feel as comfortable with the pieces we are creating today as we have with the ones we have made in the past. In a way it’s simple because, when it comes to what we create, we have set certain criteria and we never compromise.
The Poetic Complication by Van Cleef & Arpels has been and remains particularly daring in watchmaking. Do you see these watches as interesting for men and women?
We have seen that, even though the collection is developed mainly for women, we have a good number of collectors among men as well, the response has been good overall. The Poetic Complication is a very specific model and it stands out in the world of women’s watches because there are not so many options. I am talking about the world of «complications» for women. In the world of men’s watches there are many different offers, with many different approaches, but the narrative aspect is still unique. We see a lot of men who want real sports watches, maybe a thin watch is too elegant. But then they also want something extremely poetic, something different…
Do you really have time to consider women as serious watch collectors and a considerable segment of the market?
Definitely yes. The idea of the collection is probably different for women than for men. The dimension of pleasure is probably higher for women than for men. I think for men it is more of a compulsion, a pathology that borders on obsession: they are always on the next piece, on the next item on the list. Women take more pleasure in what they already have. It is fun. They do not need to have something in the collection to fill a void… For men, you can see during an auction that they do not have fun. Often the focus is more on the piece they missed than on what they got. For Van Cleef & Arpels, it is about creating something that a woman loves to wear, that amuses and plays with. Something that, even if it is not worn for many years, will again give pleasure.
