Watches & Jewellery / Watches · Jewellery
When a Watch Is Also a Jewel: Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels
The century-old Ludo bracelet shows how jewellery watchmaking resolves two crafts into one object.
Jewellery watchmaking is a strange discipline: it asks two entirely separate bodies of expertise, gem-setting and movement engineering, to agree on a single object.
Few houses navigate that negotiation as gracefully as Van Cleef & Arpels, whose Ludo bracelet its interlocking 'briquette' links a trompe-l'oeil reference to a leather belt has been in continuous use since 1934 and still drapes like fabric nearly a century on. Cartier, Chopard and Bulgari made similarly persuasive arguments at Watches and Wonders 2026, each treating the wrist as a canvas for storytelling rather than pure timekeeping.
The category's growing prominence at a fair otherwise dominated by complications suggests the line between fine jewellery and haute horlogerie is thinner than either industry likes to admit.
About the author
Oliva Wang
Fashion editor and writer covering design, image-making and the creative networks connecting Southeast Asia.
