Since its foundation, journeys have always been an integral part of Van Cleef & Arpels’ identity, both in terms of its search and prospection of gemstones and its High Jewelry creations. To bring this concept of journeying to life, the Maison has drawn inspiration from four Jules Vernes’s key novels: Five Weeks in a Balloon, Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Resonating with the work of this famous 19th century French novelist, virtual explorer and visionary genius, these creations are evasions into other worlds of marvels and magic. They required Mains d’Or of the Maison in Paris to use all their expertise, patience, ingenuity, and talent. Their creative audacity, together with the dazzle of shimmering jewels defined as Stones of Character, has given birth to 100 pieces, each one unique, all richly colored and highly diverse.

An expedition to the Moon is undertaken in the novel From the Moon to the Earth, aboard the space shuttle “Columbiad.” It’s a journey to the heart of the galazy, with our head in the stars, that Van Cleef & Arpels presents in its pieces, recreating the carious celestial bodies of our solar system. This landscape dotted with stars is seen from an internal viewpoint, as if we were right in the middle of the sky.

We discover Africa seen from the sky in all its splendor, exuberance, and abundance through High Jewelry pieces. They refer, with meticulous care, to untamed hosts in the savannah and jungle, nestling in their natural environments as described in the novel Five Weeks in a Balloon.

Presenting a new field of vision, the terrestrial journey described in Journey to the Center of the Earth is an underground crossing whose points of departure and arrival are two volcanoes, one located in Iceland, the other in Italy. It is Nature in her most excessive and exuberant form that is unveiled in the pieces created by the Maison.

With Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, we are invited to dive into the ocean, journeying through the Antarctic on board the “Nautilus,” a submarine chartered especially for this sub-aquatic voyage. Whales, sea turtles, spectacular polyps and mysterious creatures from the abyss appear one after another as we travel across the uneven waves of these icy waters.