Van Cleef & Arpels is one of the few watch brands where I like all their collections and watches. The watches are not just watches – are pieces of jewelry.
For today I want to show you a special watch: the Midnight Planétarium. the reason I like this one more than other is the “Lucky Star” – explanation comes later.
The dial is Aventurine (probably used for his magic look), the Sun and shooting star are pink gold, the rest are serpentine – Mercury, chloromelanite – Venus, turquoise – Earth, red jasper – Mars, blue agate – Jupiter, sugilite – Saturn, placed in the right order. The shooting star need 24 hours for a complete rotation and it is used for specifying time.
The movement was created especially for VC&A in collaboration with Christiaan Van der Klaauw: 396 components, 41 rubies, 48 hours of power reserve. Through a calculated gear mechanism every planet is doing it’s own revolution time: Mercury 88 days, Venus 224 days, Earth 365 days, Mars 687 days, Jupiter 12 years and Saturn over 29 years to make a complete rotation around Sun.
Any day, month and year can be shown using the two push buttons and viewing through two apertures on the dial (6 o’clock and 9 o’clock – 3 o’clock from the back view): in this way it’s possible to show the planets configuration for a certain date.
This model, Ref. VCARO4J000, has a rose gold 18K 44mm case with gold bezel and gold crown with VC&A logo, matte black alligator strap with pink gold folding clasp. For this type of complication the watch has a very good size. This version is numbered and unlimited edition and costs 218.500,00 €.
Since Van Cleef & Arpels are mainly a jewelry manufacturer there is, naturally, a version with diamond bezel: 186 stones, 1.84 carats in baguette-cut diamonds – the Ref. VCARO4J400. This beauty comes with a price – 291.500,00 €. The strap used is shiny alligator leather square scale.
All the versions use precious stones: Rubies 2 stones, Turquoise 2 stones, Agate 2 stones, Aventurine 2 stones, Sugilite 2 stones, Serpentine 2 stones, Chloromelanite 2 stones with the note that creation is handmade as a result, carat weights and stone quantities may differ slightly from one creation to the next – Info from VC&A.
Other articles about this watch with pictures and information can be read on:
- ABlogToWatch: Van Cleef & Arpels Complication Poetique Midnight Planetarium Watch Hands-On
- Hodinkee: In-Depth – A Look At The Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight Planétarium, An Entire Solar System On Your Wrist
- WorldTempus: Van Cleef & Arpels – Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complication
I would like to thank Van Cleef & Arpels for the images and information from the VC&A Website, the video from the VC&A Official Youtube Channel. Please visit their Website for other collections and information.