California dreaming: Van Cleef & Arpels at South Coast Plaza

In the Orange County city of Costa Mesa, Van Cleef & Arpels may have found an alternative option to international travel, or at least a way to tie over Francophile Californians counting down the days until crossing the Atlantic is permitted once again.

To be unveiled at the South Coast Plaza – to date the largest shopping centre on the United States’ West Coast – a Paris-themed display by the Place Vendôme master jeweller sets its Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux collection of timepieces within an immersive mise en scene, which can be explored upon booking.

Van Cleef & Arpels first launched its Pont des Amoureux line of timepieces in 2010: drawing from its house archives, pictorial dials frame scenes of love, devotion and courtship. On view in Costa Mesa will be a new addition to the offering: the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Jour watch is, as its name suggests, conceived for daytime wear.

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Other additions include a bejewelled model; its dial shows signature lovers’ kiss set against the backdrop of changing seasons. “Love stories have inspired Van Cleef & Arpels’ creations since 1906,” says Helen King, president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels Americas. “The Pont des Amoureux collection is a reflection of the Maison’s unique imagination and watchmaking virtuosity.”

Unfolding across 1,000 sq ft of the South Coast Plaza’s Jewel Court, the display is chaptered into four rooms. Grouped around a verdant garden, rooms house an IRL recreation of Pont des Amoureux dials, and in turn concretise creative takes on astronomy, fairies, ballerinas and Paris cityscapes – at Van Cleef & Arpels, all have made for recurring themes that have inspired precious creations. As does the four-leaf clover, captured most famously in its Alhambra pendant. In California, the maison is set to debut a new luck-bringing Alhambra watch pendant.