THE JEWELLER’S PLAYBOOK IS A treasure trove of ancient, artisanal techniques. At the fundamental level, there’s goldsmithing, the art of teasing precious metals into myriad shapes and sizes to adorn the body. More specialist crafts run the gamut from gem-setting to enamelling. When these traditional skills are applied to the art of watchmaking, the result is often spellbinding, as these bejewelled timepieces from Bulgari, Van Cleef & Arpels and Piaget demonstrate.

Bulgari – Tadao Ando x Serpenti

If you’ve managed to catch the sakura season this year, good on you. Otherwise, Bulgari’s latest Serpenti Tubogas release, a new collaboration with Japanese architect Tadao Ando, captures the ethereal beauty of the experience on its dial.

It’s not Ando’s first partnership with the Italian jewellery and watchmaking powerhouse. Their previous collaborations (in 2020 and 2021) yielded results in the Octo Finissimo collection. 

On the popular Tubogas model, Ando pays tribute to the changing of the seasons, with cherry blossoms symbolising spring. On the watch dial, pink mother-of-pearl marquetry fragments are applied in a pattern reminiscent of snakeskin. There’s a nice metaphor here: Snakes shed their skin just as nature renews itself.

In a similar fashion, the other seasons are wrought in green aventurine (summer), tiger’s eye (autumn) and white mother-of-pearl (winter). The colours complement the case and bracelet material: Rose gold and steel for spring, yellow gold and steel for summer, rose gold for autumn, and steel for winter. 

The watches are limited edition, ranging from 210 pieces for autumn and 810 pieces for winter. Bulgari has also produced a series of 20 boxed sets with all four watches.  

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Van Cleef & Arpels – Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantee

Van Cleef & Arpels’ Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantee reminds us of amethyst geodes, which are said to create and attract positive energy into living spaces. We aren’t sure if donning this timepiece will have the same effect, but its beauty must surely uplift the spirit. 

The dial depicts the brand’s emblematic fairy motif resting on a bed of flowers in a crystal cave, with the night sky in the background. To create this enchanting scene, the brand’s lapidary craftsmen employed rough sapphires with pink and purple tones to sculpt the “cave” interior. 

Because of the inherent differences in shape and colour of these stones, no two dials are alike. Elsewhere on the dial, yellow sapphires bring the flowers to life; time is read from a rock crystal dial set with rose gold hour markers; and different enamelling techniques are used to animate the night sky, fairy wings and flower bed. 

Piaget – High Jewellery Aura

Wristwatches with integrated bracelets first appeared in the 1970s, but these mostly belonged to the sporty elegant category. When Piaget applied the concept to its first High Jewellery Aura in 1989, it immediately struck a chord, thanks to the audacious manner in which the watch case and bracelet were paved with baguette-cut diamonds. 

Unseen to the naked eye, the inaugural Aura was also equipped with an ultra-thin, in-house-produced manual-winding movement, calibre 40P, at a time when jewellery watches were largely fitted with quartz mechanisms. 

An 18-ct white gold and diamond-set piece from 1989 fetched just over HK$2.5 million (S$434,000) at a Christie’s sale in May 2023, beating its highest estimate by a factor of 1.4. With interest in the 35-year-old design still strong, Piaget has unveiled two new versions of this iconic timepiece, drenched in rosy hues. 

One version is a hymn to pink sapphires, with a dial composed of diamonds against a backdrop of sapphires gradated from rose-red to pale pink. The other is an ode to the eternal allure of rubies, with a dial showcasing the stone to exquisite effect, surrounded by the fire of diamonds. They represent the brand’s true mastery of gem-cutting and gem-setting.