Poetry in Motion – Interview with International Marketing & Communication Director of Van Cleef & Arpels, Jean Bienayme

WORDS: ANDREW WINGROVE

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

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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important because [the major cities in Saudi are] Jeddah and Riyadh. We also recently announced that we are opening a new boutique in Khobar and we just launched online too, so we’re going into e-commerce. Last year, the “Transformation of Gold” exhibition was held at the Dubai Opera boutique. What are your plans this year in the UAE? It’s always a matter of transmitting our values through special exhibitions like the one we had in Dubai Opera last year. We regularly have exhibitions within our boutiques to transmit knowledge about our high jewellery. In Dubai, at the end of January this year, we launched our high jewellery collection titled ‘Sous les Étoiles’. Several Van Cleef pieces regularly come up at auctions worldwide. Do you work with auction houses to authenticate these pieces? They approach us sometimes for authentication. We have our patrimony department that can trace the products in the archives. We have really detailed archives because the Van Cleef & Arpels family kept detailed drawings, and mockups of some pieces too within the archives, so we can rely on it to certify specific pieces. We have our teams dedicated to certification and authentication, and they work closely with these auction houses. The pandemic has seen a shift in overall consumption patterns and attitudes towards luxury. How has Van Cleef responded? For us, the Covid pandemic meant that we had to evolve to online sales, build our e-commerce platforms and develop our digital platforms. When we were developing our e-commerce, the idea for us isn’t only about a channel to sell, but also one that would present the [story of the] maison. We don’t use our digital channels only to increase our sales, but we use it to help people know our maison better. We’re looking to build a long-term business [strategy]. And if you want to be long-term, you have to really develop your image. So on our side, we had to develop a lot of the content specifically for our digital platforms. Alongside developing our online presence, our physical network is integral to the overall experience of the brand. People who come to our boutiques have high expectations, so we’re working constantly at [upgrading our] physical boutiques too. The Dubai Mall boutique will be renovated in the coming months. Markets like China have become increasingly domestic-focused, while the Ukrainian crisis has impacted certain markets in Europe. How is Van Cleef adapting to these shifts across its international markets? I think our mission is to offer beauty and enchantment. Even with the situation globally, we still pursue our mission. We’ve always had some Russian clients in the Middle East. We are welcoming clients wherever they are, and we hope to offer them the same experience [that they would find at home]. Our other markets, for example the US, is really booming. Tell us about this year’s Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée. This is the perfect example of Van Cleef & Arpels’ love for dance. The inspiration came from the dancer Anna Pavlova who was comparing herself to a butterfly. The movement is on-demand and you have the wings that indicate the time using the rattrapante function. We are all about craftsmanship and so we have plique-à-jour enamelling technique. The most difficult part was finding the right colour for the dial. We now work with lead-free enamel. We didn’t want to compromise at any level and so it was a real challenge to find the light pink enamel dial. How is Van Cleef furthering product innovation within the maison? So product innovation [is evident] with the new Heures Florales watch. It has a completely new module. You can read the hours by counting the number of open flowers. It took us four-five years to develop this project. Some of our craftsmen have been in the maison for 30-40 years. They have great technique, and they too often innovate by combining, for example, white gold and rose gold which sounds easy, but it is very hard to do. It is really about innovation at the service of telling a story. We work with external experts as well – for example, we didn’t know how to blow the glass for the Planetarium, so we approached an expert living on an island in the west of France. He said that he could help us but that he only blows glass of 34 cm. But we said that we required 60cm. And so we worked together and pushed the boundaries of each other.