SimplyAbuDhabi XLIX

Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune The moon has long occupied a place of fascination in the creative imagination of Van Cleef &Arpels, inspiring jewellery, timepieces, and poetic interpretations of the celestial realm for almost a century. Expanding its Jour Nuit collection for Watches and Wonders 2026, the Maison introduces a remarkable new creation that celebrates this lunar love through two beautifully orchestrated complications, bringing together the passage of day and night with an elegant astronomical moonphase display. Framed by a 42 mm white gold Midnight case, the dial evokes the infinite beauty of the night sky. Crafted from black Murano aventurine glass, developed with the support of the Maison’s Innovation Department, its deep blue-black surface shimmers with bronze-toned flecks reminiscent of distant stars. Against this celestial backdrop, a guilloché golden sun gradually yields to a luminous moon fashioned from white mother- of-pearl, while delicate acrylic stars illuminate the changing sky. A gently curved horizon of guilloché mother-of- pearl, painted in graduating shades from black to white, conceals and reveals the heavenly bodies as they complete their daily journey on a 24-hour rotating disc, the signature complication of the Jour Nuit collection. Alongside this graceful choreography, the moon faithfully traces its natural 29.5-day cycle, adding another layer of astronomical precision to the display. At the touch of a button, however, the watch reveals its most enchanting secret. The entire dial rotates through 360 degrees over approximately 10 seconds, allowing the moon to emerge fully into view even when hidden beyond the horizon. It is a captivating moment of mechanical theatre, elevating an already beautiful complication into an immersive spectacle. The story continues on the reverse of the watch, where an engraved white gold case evokes the Moon’s rugged surface. An enamelled Earth rests upon the sapphire crystal above the oscillating weight, while miniature-painted planets shimmer against a guilloché background, reversing the perspective of the dial to imagine the cosmos not from Earth, but from the Moon itself. It is a fitting conclusion to one of Van Cleef &Arpels’most poetic expressions of celestial watchmaking. 214 | Simply Abu Dhabi