At this year’s SIHH 2017, Van Cleef & Arpels unveil its first Extraordinary Object: the Automate Fée Ondine. Visitors of the 27th edition of renowned event from Geneve were hypnotised with its magical animation.
From the house of fairies, flowers and butterflies comes this spellbinding bejewelled automaton as the fruit of long years’ work and an intense collaboration with automaton maker François Junod. This project also owes its existence to the savoir-faire of the numerous craftsmen who have taken part in its creation.
Van Cleef & Arpels Fée Ondine
Bringing together the jewelry and watchmaking traditions, this unique piece marks a new chapter for the Maison, in keeping with precious objects such as carriage and table clocks.
The highly complex mechanism – which animates various elements and also tells the time – gives pride of place to an ephemeral poetry: movement and lightness, the beauty of nature, the grace of a fairy waking from sleep and the nuances of precious stones and enamel. This bejeweled tableau comes to life with infinite delicacy. The spectacle lasts 50 seconds before the butterfly retreats back inside the flower and the fairy returns to her original position.
The Maison’s imagination, creativity and attachment to ancestral crafts have come together in this Extraordinary Object to instill a dreamlike sense of wonder.
