Narbeburu has been the maison’s timepieces director since 2016 (All photos: Van Cleef & Arpels)
Two lovers stand at either end of a bridge. The man approaches with an excited eagerness, gripping a rose stalk behind his back. The woman holds her umbrella tight, walking slowly and shyly. When the couple meet at the apex, they stare longingly for a moment that seems to last forever, before exchanging a tender kiss and retreating to their posts, patiently awaiting their next rendezvous.
“They don’t touch immediately. They look into each other’s eyes, wondering if they will or won’t,” explains Van Cleef & Arpels (VCA) timepieces director Pascal Narbeburu as he unveils the inner workings of the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux. The design, which has been part of the house’s DNA since 2010, was refreshed with a day-to-night theme in a four piece collection launched at Watches and Wonders 2025, alongside its narrative sequel, the Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate. “They embrace beyond the indication of time because when you fall in love, it is as if time no longer exists. Within this story, it was important for us to create that, to not rush them.”
Meticulous measures like these are embedded in every VCA creation, forming the fabric of its Poetry of Time philosophy — the formulation of an enchanted world, made to reflect the positive side of life, through exceptional savoir faire and technical prowess.
On the metallic labyrinth of the Pont des Amoureux’s calibre, the miniature figurines on their moving stalks are almost indistinguishable, but when the full symphony comes together — with the dial’s vivid enamelled landscape and the opulent gem-set case and strap — it is an indisputable masterpiece. The movements themselves are rarely revealed, notes Narbeburu, who was appointed to his current position nine years ago. Sort of like unveiling the secrets of a magic trick, he does not want to ruin the immersive fantasy of each watch’s self-contained fairy tale. But given the extent of expertise and craftsmanship required to so finely meld the artistry, romance and mechanical excellence of these creations, it is only fitting that the stagehands get their flowers too. When it comes to understanding the careful effort and uncompromising standards that go into each VCA timepiece, Narbeburu shares the lengths he and his team go to, from the invention of new animation modules to fine-tuning the narrative presentations while remaining loyal to tradition.
The industry veteran, who started out in the automotive world before holding various posts at other prominent watchmaking maisons including Piaget, Cartier and Audemars Piguet, is quick to state it is the ability to lead his team that has been most instrumental in his career. Just as the minute wheels in the fine movements they produce must be perfectly calibrated to function in harmony, Narbeburu considers maintaining the synergy of those under his purview to be the job’s biggest hurdle.
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“Throughout my career, I’ve strived to implement real team spirit. When I was younger, I used to play rugby, and in rugby, that spirit is very important. When someone doesn’t know how to go forward, others will help them,” he says. With over 20 people — engineers, watchmakers, artists, craftspeople — needed to yield a single novelty, not to mention the rest of the in-house team, including logistics and quality control, communication and cooperation are not always easy, especially when producing goods that demand such high standards.
“One side will say there’s no space between the glass and the figures, but we also don’t want to have a case that’s too thick. Everybody challenges everybody, and it’s not necessarily comfortable. Each of them needs to understand the constraints of the other,” points out Narbeburu, who adds how his tenure across brands has taught him the value of hearing every person out in order to build a better watch.
It is a united passion for precision and perfection that drives the house’s timepieces division. Narbeburu recalls an episode where he found seven craftsmen huddled over a table, deliberating the angle of a fairy’s head that was not even a millimetre in size. “Even this bouquet of flowers,” he indicates on the Bal des Amoureux, “needed six months to develop because we kept going back and forth on the details and engraving.” It is the little things (literally) that infuse VCA’s horological oeuvre with its defining dreamlike wonder — the slightly staggered swaying of the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été’s stalks, or the seemingly random blooming of the Lady Arpels Heures Florales, create an illusion of nature achievable only through immense calculation. Likewise, on the Bal des Amoureux, the characters have both translation and rotation incorporated into their automation to achieve a more fluid motion (as opposed to Barbie dolls bending at the hip, which the first draft more closely resembled).
Though a ticking clock is often considered the enemy of art, you cannot capture time’s beauty without pouring time itself into a project. Every VCA creation is famously said to begin with a story but, more accurately, it begins with an annual meeting between the design studios, marketing team and watchmaking division, to plan what stories they wish to tell within the next six to eight years. The resulting ideas are brought to the CEO, who will narrow them down to maybe three options. The designers are then tasked to turn the tales into timepieces via watercolour, creating multiple iterations to ensure the most accurate interpretation of the narratives. “When that’s finished, the studio will send us the drawings. From there, our nightmare begins, and it lasts about five years,” laughs Narbeburu. Every second is worth it, though, as the results are exquisite. The Planétarium automaton, now one of the brand’s most iconic Extraordinary Objects, took a whopping seven years to complete.
The maison’s blending of traditional and modern techniques within its savoir faire, coupled with its fascination with the ethereal themes of nature, astronomy and romance, are part of how VCA’s timepieces preserve their perennial charm. Narbeburu compares it to reading a book: “If I picked a book from a shelf, I’m sure I would have a lot of pleasure reading it and it would give me information from the time it was written.” Likewise, “ancestral” designs such as the Pont des Amoureux encapsulate a sincerely magical human moment. “The story doesn’t change, the characters do not get old. We are not trying to follow trends.”
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Adhering to the past does not mean there is no room for the future though, as Narbeburu insists collaboration and innovation are necessary to expand the brand’s storytelling abilities. “Enamelling is a 7,000-year-old art, but we also cannot just accept what has already been done. We are committed to inventing new materials and processes, which is why we need engineers working with craftspeople to develop our novelties,” says the director. The same is true of the mechanical aspects. “At times, we may use something that already exists, like a regulator, retrograde or moon phase, but often, to tell what we want to tell, complications are needed that do not yet exist. We need to think beyond the normal tracks, to push the limits and exceed them. That’s why we create around three to five patents every year.” Not only does over 40% of each movement need to be redeveloped for every new narrative, the department has gone as far as making its own software (“sort of like watching a baby on a camera”) to track the modules and ensure flowers open and figures smooch at the exact right times.
As a homage to this enduring legacy, the brand is showcasing the Precious Jewels Telling Time exhibition at Les Jardins Secrets, within its boutique at Raffles Singapore, a patrimony collection of its most prominent time-telling creations. At the heart of this display are VCA’s secret watches, born from a period when it was considered unladylike for women to check the time in social settings, presented alongside early iterations of its Ludo and Cadenas models as well as 20th-century pocket watches.
The Van Cleef & Arpels Precious Jewels Telling Time exhibition is on at Les Jardins Secrets in Raffles Singapore until Nov 9. Daily, 11am to 8pm.
This article first appeared on June 16, 2025 in The Edge Malaysia.
