A jewel-robot that marks the time: the amazing single piece of Van Cleef & Arpels.
There are objects that are not objects, but references. They are fantasies that become solid only to remember something else. For example, the time. If the fourth dimension, that of minutes that flow, in turn serves to evoke another time, you get a fantasy to the square, or a hyperdimension. Complicated? Yet it is the experience you can live meeting the Objet Extraordinaire Automate Fée Ondine. single piece designed by Van Cleef & Arpels, may mark the passage of time, but also evoke the fashion of automata that between late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were an attraction in the royal courts. But in this case more than curious object, is a product of art and ingenuity. It’s been presented at the International Motor Show Haute Horlogerie in Geneva. The Object Extraordinaire has the flavor of a challenge. The plateau is silver plates engraved and glazed, white gold, pink gold, diamonds, pink sapphires. The fairy is made of white gold, diamonds, sapphires, aquamarine milk, plique-à-jour enamel. The silver lilies, enamel, yellow gold, diamonds, yellow sapphires and orange butterfly in white gold, diamonds, pink sapphires, Australian white opal. It is worthwhile to list all of the elements of this surprising gem-watch: the ladybug was made in pink gold, white gold, diamonds, Serti MystОrieux Traditionnel (the patented by Van Cleef & Arpels) of rubies. Finally, the base has an ebony coating. The mode of operation is fun: the automaton mechanism has a mechanical hand-wound movement with entertainment on demand, with five cycles of animation 50 seconds after full charge of the mechanism. To be precise, it is appropriate to say, the mechanical movement is manual winding, retrograde hour, eight-day power reserve. It has only one flaw: it is unique. Giulia Netrese
