We give you the rundown on the year's most prominent pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc, Greubel Forsey, Audemars Piguet, Ulysse Nardin, and H. Moser. We bring you three things you need to know about each of the brands and their new releases in 2018.
1. Van Cleef & Arpels
- Van Cleef & Arpels is famous for its poetic complications, and it seems shocking now to think that the brand only started producing them a scant 10 years ago. And unlike most of its watchmaking counterparts, Van Cleef & Arpels has no timeline for the completion of each watch—whether it takes one, three, seven years, or even longer, the brand makes sure to get everything just right before it is released to the press.
- The new Lady Arpels Planetarium, for example, took some four years to complete—not surprising considering that you're wearing a miniature planetarium on your wrist. Each of the planets spin on their own axis, and revolve around the sun at the same rate that the real planets revolve around the sun in the universe. And it also has a clever moonphase display—if you know how to read it, that is.
- Van Cleef & Arpels is also known for its stunning high jewellery secret watches, and this year has brought us a bumper crop. Our favourite is the Dandelion Secret Watch, which takes the form of an open bracelet. One end holds the dandelion flower, whose heart swivels open to reveal the dial, and the other end holds the ever-so-familiar dandelion ball of seeds, which uses an en tremblance mechanism to make the delicate seeds move, as if they were about to take flight in a gust of wind.