Van Cleef & Arpels

As the brand’s name would suggest, Van Cleef & Arpels was founded from the union of Alfred Van Cleef, the son of a lapidary craftsman, and Estelle Arpels - who hailed from a family of well-connected merchants of precious stones. 

The couple wed in 1895, and 11 years later - with backing from Estelle’s brothers - opened their legendary boutique at 22 (now 21-24) Place Vendôme. Renée Puissant, daughter of the founders, would go on to play an instrumental role at her family’s company. Along with designer René Sim Lacaze, Puissant conceived multiple of Van Cleef’s signature creations: including the iconic brick-link Ludo bracelet and multi-purpose Passe-Partout.

Born out of a marriage between the Arpels and Van Cleef families, Van Cleef & Arpels is among a handful of genuinely historic high jewelry Maisons around the globe. Today, the company is still headquartered on Paris’s iconic Place Vendȏme - its founding site in 1906 - with additional flagships in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Thanks to the Arpels family’s astute aesthetic sensibilities, the brand was already selling its watches by the early 1920s. In subsequent decades, it garnered a reputation for avant-garde pieces: such as the angled Cadenas bracelet watch (1935) and a round design secured with a single central lug (1949).

The brand has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Richemont Group since 2000.

Lady Arpels Planetarium, Ludo “secret watches,” Pierre Arpels Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs