Horological Meandering

Van Cleef et Arpels is the lesser known but no less glamorous jewellery brand in the Richemont stable. In fact it can be considered more exclusive than Cartier which is effectively a mass market luxury brand now.

VC&A has been working quietly on its watch collection in recent years and has created some stunning pieces like the Midnight over Paris astronomical display watch as well as a ladies' watch with a revolving disc that displays th four seasons. The VC&A products are probably the most interesting ladies' wristwatches from a jewellery company of late.

Recently it has unveiled a dazzling high jewellery ladies' wristwatch containing the minsicule JLC cal.101 movement, which is the tiniest mechanical movement ever made, measuring only 14 x 4.8 x 3.4 mm, or the size of the fingernail on one's little finger. In some ways the cal. 101 can be considered a complication in itself, despite only having minute and seconds display, because of the extreme small size of the calibre and components, which means production of parts and assembly is far, far more challenging than normal. Even more astounding is the fact that it was introduced in 1929, a testament to the manufacturing prowess of JLC.

The fact that VC&A is putting this movement in a ladies' jewellery timepiece shows the brand's admirable direction in proper watchmaking and also the fact that ladies', or the men that pay for the watches, are increasingly able to apppreciate such movements; remember the cal. 101 has no complications at all.

According to the editor of TimeWerke, he was pleasantly surprised by this revelation and how pleasantly designed it was as a high-end mechanical jewellery watch. He had actually wanted to offer more details but it seems that the supply of information from the brand's PR company which is based in Singapore was not timely.

We hope to offer more information on VC&A in the future.

- SJX

This message has been edited by SJX on 2008-11-11 20:20:00

by the precision of (literally) micro-engineering needed to get the thing working.

Imagine the tolearances needed just to keep the escapement ticking, even if time-only function. I wonder how true is the "story" that Queen Elizabeth II sent in the Royal Guards to search the field where she lost her dress watch way back in the 1950s. It also contained a similar caliber movement, and the search was to no avail.

Thanks for the update SJX, despite difficulties........

Regards,

MTF

I think you meant to say the movement indicates minutes and hours, rather than minutes and seconds.
Although that would be an interesting thing in itself.

That movement is really scary in how small it is - this GP is the smallest I've actually worked on, and it's huge next to the JLC

Mike

but that case doesnt express its size... the JLC pieces are much better as showing the size of movement. where the jewels are on top/bottom movement is not under there but it appears to be the way designed...

id rather have JLC 101 piece... they are insane
especially riviere 1012813304!!! This message has been edited by rijowysock on 2008-11-12 14:21:43

Being so tiny, are there issues with the precision of the movement?

...No idea but the JLC 101 is in the London Science Museum. (a different version, or so the image would show..)

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/museum_objects/time_measurement.aspx

An interesting read for anyone interested in horology, I particularly like the elegance (yet the learnedness that is behind that elegance) of the Ashadar time stick

Thks for sharing

from somewhere that only a few Calibre 101 movements are made each year, less than 10, if not wrong (pse correct me if wrong).

too bad the local PR company could not live up to the standards of a high-end international luxury brand. more info on their mechanical jewellery watches would be interesting. i remember being impressed by their four seasons watch commemorating their 100th anniversary a few years back