Van Cleef & Arpels
Poetry of Time, Behind the scenes of watchmaking creation
Jan 24 – Feb 8, 2026
11am – 8pm*
*Last Admission: 30 minutes before closing
* Closing time varies, please visit here to explore daily opening hours
Advanced booking is recommended
Children workshop – Create your Poetry of Time
Jan 31 – Feb 1, 2026
Feb 7 – 8, 2026
L’ÉCOLE Talk – Art Mechanics: A Bridge between Arts & Science
Speakers: Mathilde Rondouin and Patricia Zika
Thursday Feb 5, 7pm – 9.30pm
7pm welcome drinks followed by 45min talk from 7.30pm and private viewing of the exhibition.
Central
Pier 4
Hong Kong
Van Cleef & Arpels celebrates its watchmaking savoir faire with Poetry of Time, an exhibition that transforms the passage of time into an enchanting spectacle at Central Ferry Pier 4, Hong Kong. This curated journey of discovery invites dreams and wonder, immersing visitors into a world that fuses inventiveness and fantasy.
The exhibition gives a rare insight into the watchmaking philosophy of Van Cleef & Arpels, where craftmanship and storytelling are at the centre of every timepiece; each creation moving beyond traditional timekeeping to bring alive a vividly poetic world, and capture the magic of fleeting moments.
Exhibited in Hong Kong for the first time, the curated selection of highlights from Van Cleef & Arpels’ Narrative Timepieces and Objects, and Jewels That Tell Timecollections tell the story of the Maison like never before. Opening with a spectacular Patrimony Collection showcasing the rich heritage that breathes life into the Maison’s creations, the exhibition then moves into a Discovery Hall where the living heritage and technical expertise that defines the Maison’s art of watchmaking takes centre stage. Three work benches offer behind the scenes insight to Van Cleef & Arpels’ time-honored savoir-faire, Metiers d’Art and Mecanique d’Art, with focuses on enamel art, miniature painting, dial making and the movements of an Automaton and Poetic Complication timepiece. From here you can explore five universes reflecting the Maison’s emblematic sources of inspiration; Love Stories, Poetic Astronomy, Enchanting Nature, Ballerinas and Fairies and Jewels That Tell Time.
Amongst the highlights of the exhibition the magnificent 2025 Planétarium Automata stands out. The result of over 15,000 hours of meticulous work the Planétarium presents the Sun and the planets visible from the Earth, moving at their actual speed of celestial rotation. An on-demand animation allows the poetic scene to come to life at will; accompanied by a crystalline melody and a shooting star in rose gold, diamonds and Mystery Set rubies that emerges from a hatch and flies by to indicate the hours and minutes on a 24-hour dial.
The exquisite Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier watch is another timepiece to look out for, inspired by Carl von Linné’s 18th-century concept of the flower clock (which proposed a garden that could tell time by the opening and closing of plants at specific moments during the day), the Heures Florales watch transforms the telling of time into a poetic spectacle that celebrates Nature’s spirit of joy and beauty. Every hour 166 elements animate to breathe life into the dial’s enchanting garden scene, the hours mysteriously represented by the number of flowers open on the dial.
Celebrating the Maison’s continued immortalization of those precious moments when love blooms, the Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate features a double retrograde automaton movement that brings two lovers together for a kiss at noon and midnight in the charming setting of a 19th Century Parisian guinguette – a Parisian dance-café. The tender lovers’ scene can be recreated at will with the push of a button, a romantic testament to the technical watchmaking and high-jewellery expertise that serves the Maison’s poetic vision of time.
Inspired by the Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate timepiece, the final space of the exhibition has been transformed into a guinguette, where visitors are invited to join the Maison for a taste of Paris with a Madeleine delight, an immersive digital game and a programme of experiences that further express Van Cleef & Arpels’ creative universe, details above.
