Poetry in motion
French luxury jewellery and watch company Van Cleef & Arpels debuted stunning models at the recently concluded Watches and Wonders. We speak to Jean Bienayme, international marketing and communication director at Van Cleef & Arpels about the direction that the maison is headed 40 emirateswoman.com
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IMAGES: SUPPLIED
WORDS: ANDREW WINGROVE
Tell us about some of your highlights at Watches and Wonders this year. On one hand, we have the automatons – the Rêveries de Berylline automaton and the Fontaine aux Oiseaux automaton are major highlights this year. On the other hand, our highlights also include the Heures Florales watch with the flowers that open to tell the time. It’s a new poetic complication with a completely new module that we have developed internally, which is a big achievement for the maison. Give us an overview of your presence across the Middle East market and how much does this region contribute to Van Cleef’s overall business? A lot. It’s a region that includes several countries, and we are now developing teams in more countries on the ground, for instance in Saudi Arabia. We operate there with a partner. Now we also have a team there. We started three years ago and this is very important because it helps us really to develop the business and build the brand’s image. The entire region contributes significantly to our business. And during the pandemic, the clients within the region didn’t travel a lot, and it was during that time that our business developed quite significantly within the region. Van Cleef has been an active supporter of the Saudi Arabian creative arts scene. It recently renewed its partnership for the “21, 39 Jeddah Arts” event too. How invested is Van Cleef in Saudi in general? Saudi Arabia is very important to us. In fact, we’re going to be sharing some information later this year that will further illustrate the investment we plan for the country in the future. We have a continuing partnership with Jeddah Arts. Jeddah Arts is
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5/31/22 3:49 PM
