Hands-On: The Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Planétarium

In anticipation of SIHH 2018, Van Cleef & Arpels dropped the Lady Arpels Planétarium, a smaller version of the Planétarium for men that the maison developed and introduced back in 2014. When I first heard about this piece, I was really excited to see a highly-complicated watch that looked like something I could actually wear (if money were no object and/or I won the lottery). I was able to see the piece in person yesterday, and boy was it beautiful. Not only is this a smaller version of the men's Planétarium, it was also reworked specifically for female buyers. Let's see what this gem is all about.

The dial is made of a series of Aventurine rings that rotate.

The Planétarium features an astronomical complication that tracks the movement of the planets around the sun. It's a fairly complicated thing to produce, but for the sake of brevity you can read about it in our in-depth story here. The Van Cleef & Arpels movement was developed by Christiaan van der Klaauw who is the leading Astronomical watchmaker (and who also created the Midnight Planétarium). The Lady Arpels Planétarium features the Sun at the center of the dial and is circulated by Venus (green enamel), Earth (turquoise), Mercury (pink mother-of-pearl), and the Moon (diamond). Each move slowly around the center for the number of days it take each planet to orbit in real life. So, the moon will orbit in 29.5 days, Mercury in 88 days, Venus in 224 days, and Earth in 365 days.

In the center of the dial is the sun.

You can tell the time by the shooting star rotating on the outer most ring.

The Lady Arpels Planétarium is the latest highly complicated watch from Van Cleef & Arpels.

How do they rotate, you ask? The dial is made up of seven rings of Aventurine (a popular material at SIHH this year), an iridescent hardstone that mimics the midnight sky. Each planet is attached to its respective ring, and each ring slowly moves according to its calibrated time. Speaking of time, the outmost ring features applied Arabic numerals and a shooting star that rotates to indicate the time. This means you get a general sense of the time – there are markers for 15-minute intervals – but precise reading isn't what this watch is about.

On the caseback, there is a magnified display for the year.

And there's another for the month and date.

Flip the watch over and you can see the automatic caliber through a sapphire crystal. The rotor is PVD-coated and is central to the movement and swings around the diamond-set crescent moon with turquoise center. Additionally there are two apertures displaying the date and month (at the bottom) and the year next to the crown, along with a key to the planets (you know, in case you forget). The watch is made in white gold and the bezel is set with diamonds and you can get it with either a blue alligator strap or a bracelet.

The ladies version features, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and the Moon all of which rotate around the sun.

The ladies' version features a 38mm white gold case set with diamonds.

For me, the dial is one of my favorite things. How can it not be?? The Aventurine in stunning to see in person and the rings are so well laid that it is nearly impossible to see the lines between them. The planets are so tiny it is impressive. However, the craftsmanship of this jewelry/highly-complicated watch should come as no surprise to anyone. Van Cleef has been making some of the most insane jewelry since the maison was founded in 1898. Furthermore, they have been leaders in the watch game since the 1930s and have been known to make some crazy complicated pieces of the years such as Pont des Amoureux, which has seen great success. This Planetarium is no different. Instead of just shrinking the watch they removed some of the planets and the case band buttons and date/month indication on the outer ring. To me this makes the watch look far more elegant on the wrist and certainly easier to wear.

The automatic movement was developed by Astronomical watchmaker/wizard, Christiaan van der Klaauw.

On the wrist the watch is far more comfortable than I thought it would be.

And it wears like a dream. I know that before I've said I couldn't really see how this would be an everyday watch, but I must say after trying it on and seeing how comfortable it is, I could definitely rock this with my daily uniform of jeans and sweaters (it's all about the high-low). However, the watch does come at a hefty price – it is $245,000 on a strap or a diamond bracelet for $330,000.

For more, visit Van Cleef & Arpels online.

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