Van Cleef and Arpels-Gift To The World Of Creativity!

Van Cleef &Arpels is highly focused on reputation and maintaining consistency in carving a niche.This brnad means unmatched beautiful designs,wonderful craftsmanship blended with high degree of creativity!The brand debuted its Midnight Maki-E Japanese Lacquer collection at the January 2010 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva. The dials are crafted in a technique that has remained unchanged since the 17th century by Japanese artisan Hakose San, whose workshop is his boat - the main enemy of lacquer is dust, he explains, so he takes the dials out to sea, working on them away from dust and dirt. When the dials are dry, he heads for shore.

The enamelled dials of the Extraordinary Hummingbirds collection depict five different types of the bird, along with the particular flower to which each is attracted, and the Timeless Birds of Paradise collection combines enamelling with mother-of-pearl inlay and gold engraving.
Such rare craftsmanship doesn't come cheap - the watches range in price from $72,000 to $116,000. The new Midnight California Landscape collection, fondly called "California Dreaming," is a celebration of the brand's 70th anniversary in the United States. Each dial depicts a scene from the state, including beaches, mountains, waterfalls and sunsets. They are sold as a set, priced at $495,000.

This year Van Cleef introduced three of what it terms poetic complications. The Pont des Amoureux is a retrograde movement with hour and minute indicators represented by a man and woman who meet at midnight for a kiss at the centre of a Paris bridge. The dial is crafted in the grisaille style, with white enamel mixed into a black background, producing a grey, nighttime effect. Enamel artist Dominique Baron of Stern Creations says it takes 45 hours for her to complete one dial, using 8-power magnification and working with a needle.The second poetic complication, the Midnight Tourbillon Nacre, has mother-of-pearl engraved to depict the sun's rays, surrounding the open window of the tourbillon cage, (priced at $141,000.)The third poetic complication consists of a pair of retrograde watches with butterflies crafted in stained-glass enamel, also crafted by Baron, over a mother-of-pearl or onyx dial and diamonds set into the bezel and lugs. They are sold as a set, for $495,000.

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Van Cleef and Aperals-Perefect Jewelries of ethnecity!

The establishment story of Van Cleef and Arpels is no less than a beautiful fairy tale. Thus goes the real story. Alfred Van Cleef, a specialized in cutting gem stone jeweler, fell in love with Estelle Arpels and got married in 1896. Her father was a diamond merchant. Their marriage gave birth to a world renowned jewelry business.
Alfred and Estelle were Dutch. They knew very well they needed to reach Paris if they wanted to exploit their talent to the fullest in jewelry business. Thus they started jewelry business in a small shop on the rue Drouet. Gradually as their business caught up, then they moved to posh quarters on the place Vendome.Soon Estelle’s brothers, Julian, Charles, and Louis brought their skills to the firm. The company established another boutique in Nice. Eventually Van Cleef & Arpels had stores in New York and London. Now the company has stores all over the world.
Immediately Estelle’s siblings joined them to expand the business. Now Van Cleef & Arpels was house hold name .Everyone knew about Van Cleef and Arpels. Soon gained carved a niche in the market as a house of cutting gemstones. The designs became smash hit among the jewelry lovers. Van Cleef and Arpel jewelries had theme based designs either from story or from nature. So mostly they were in shape of butterflies and dragon flies. The four leaf clover became famous as a symbol of good luck.
Van Cleef & Arpel's Innovations
Van Cleef & Arpel’s innovations include the minaudière and the mystery setting. The minaudière is a small vanity case made of hard materials. This was supposed to have been inspired by Florence Jay Gould, the wife of the railway magnate. She used to put her small items into a Lucky Strikes metal tin. Specialties of Van Cleef and Arpel are the creation of the minaudière a hard vanity case, mystery setting and the watch. All these had a superb setting. In mystery setting the gemstones look as if they are floating. First watch was designed by them inspired by the Duchess of Windsor and a padlock with an exceptional clasp. Fairy Watch is also another creation of Van Cleef and Arpel.. This uses a fairy wand to tell the hours and a fairy’s wings to tell the minutes. All of the company’s watches are exquisite. Van Cleef and Arpels has been pampered by Hollywood stars and business tycoons!

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Buccellati-A Class Apart!

Don’t we feel sometimes from where it came?..... So I have tried sincerely to give you some information on Buccellati. Buccellati is a world renowned house of jewelries. An Italian gold smith named Mario Buccellati carried on family tradition. Perhaps he was the first one to open a shop on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1919.His popularity grew very quickly and he came to be known as ‘The Prince Of Goldsmiths.’ Mario, being a hard dying lover of renaissance art, brought all those designs back to life! This worth reading instance briefs about Mario’s characteristics. He hurled an expensive piece out of his window when a lady asked for discount! So was his love for his profession!
Gianmaria Buccellati assisted his father Mario at the age of 14! Gianmaria expanded his business around the world after his father’s death in 1965.He became a leading designer in silver and gold. Highly quality conscious Gianmaria, personally chose his craftsmen to work on his designs. The Esteval, named after a villa in Portugal was a smash hit. He came to be known as the best producer of silver in Italy. After his retirement, he closed his factory. Buccellati hollowware and silver ware are ruling the roof till today!The beauty forever!

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Diamonds are forever-A brand name in diamond industry.

Harry Winston Diamond Corporation is a n expertise in diamond enterprise with premium assets in the mining and retail segments of the diamond industry. The Company supplies rough diamonds to the global market from its 40% interest in the Diavik Diamond Mine, located in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The Company’s retail division, Harry Winston Inc., is a premier diamond jeweler and luxury timepiece retailer with salons in key locations including New York, Paris, London, Beijing, Tokyo and Beverly Hills.

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The House of Jewelries womens ' interest-a blog introduces the extra ordinary houses of jewelries of the world.!

Harry Winston Inc. is the corporate name of The House of Harry Winston, one of the world's most prestigious luxury jewelers. The worldwide operation is run from a Fifth Avenue location in New York City, where the company not only maintains a salon open to a select clientele, but also operates workshops that design jewelry and cut, polish, and set gems. Harry Winston also owns a salon in Los Angeles, where it tends close ties to Hollywood and is spotlighted during each year's Academy Awards, when famous actresses borrow multimillion-dollar jewelry for the evening. In addition, Harry Winston salons are found in Paris, Geneva, Tokyo, and Osaka. Approximately one-fifth of the company's income is generated by less expensive jewelry manufactured in Rhode Island and Hong Kong and sold to mass-market retailers, who are forbidden to reveal the source of the merchandise in order to preserve Harry Winston's reputation for exclusivity.
Harry Winston and the Birth of His Company: 1890s-1930s

When Harry Winston established his business in 1932, he already had many years of experience in the jewelry business. His father, a Ukrainian immigrant named Jacob Winston, had opened a jewelry retail and repair shop in Manhattan's upper west side in 1890. His mother died when Harry was seven, and a year later he and his father, who suffered from asthma, moved to the West Coast for health reasons and opened a jewelry store in the center of the Los Angeles business district at a time when the film industry was just beginning to establish itself in the area.

According to lore, Harry early on demonstrated an ability to recognize valuable stones when at the age of 12 he noticed a two-carat emerald ring on a tray of junk jewelry in a pawnshop window. He bought the ring for 25 cents and resold it two days later for $800. He dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and went to work for his father to devote himself full-time to the store as well as to visit boomtown saloons, where he sold gems to oil prospectors who struck it rich.

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