Suspended above the watch’s rotating, blue landscape is flora formed from tsavorite garnets, sapphires, spessarite garnets and enamel. Photos courtesy Van Cleef & Arpels.

The graceful nymph evokes the feminine figures Van Cleef & Arpels created in the 1940s.

BY KAREN AANONSEN

The fairy-filled world of Van Cleef & Arpels is now even more enchanting. With its new Lady Arpels Jour Nuit Fée watch, the luxury label presents a dreamy scene where a nymph rests beside crystal waters punctuated by pretty water lilies — but it’s the timepiece’s 24-hour movement that truly inspires wonder. Turning one full circle in a day, the dial’s rotating disk functions so that a yellow sapphire sun shines down on the whimsical vista from dawn until dusk, before dipping beneath the horizon to make way for a full diamond moon. The celestial bodies are placed directly opposite each other so that each gives the impression of being a lovely reflection of the other when submersed below the diamond-crowned sprite’s feet. Amazingly, the awe-inducing mechanics and skillfully crafted panorama are packed into a mere 38mm white gold case. A case which also features a dazzling diamond bezel.

—April 2016