Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Van Cleef & Arpels

Showing posts with label Van Cleef & Arpels. Show all posts

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Van Cleef & Arpels end-of-2022 tweet!

Reference
Van Cleef & Arpels Heritage Collection - 1960s -1970s.

https://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/collections/high-jewelry/the-heritage-collection/1960s-to-1970s.html

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

EOY - End of year. It's not over.

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Van Cleef & Arpels
High Jewelry - Flowers Collection

Reference

Van Cleef & Arpels (Company website) https://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Oh, patents! Van Cleef & Arpels' Alhambra®

Alhambra - Trefoil Arch

Van Cleef & Arpels’ Alhambra® collection of jewelry, launched in 1968, was inspired by the trefoil (clover) arch details of Spain’s famous Alhambra palace and fortress.

Spain’s Alhambra, located in Granada, Andalusia, is a monumental UNESCO-designated World Heritage site, remodeled and successively transformed through the ages, since 899 AD.

The Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra® clover design is patented in several US design patents. As a reminder, a utility patent protects the way an article is used and works (35 U.S.C. 101), while a design patent protects the way an article looks (35 U.S.C. 171).

The following list includes some of the Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra® US design patents, together with a patent drawing and marketed embodiment of the design.

USD614070 - Ring

USD614073 – Earing

USD638737 – Ring

USD640157 - Bracelet

References

Van Cleef & Arpels – The Alhambra® Collection

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/la-maison/spirit-of-creation/inspiration/alhambra-collection.html?55click=Highlight

Making the Alhambra® collection

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/la-maison/our-know-how/craftsmanship/the-making-of-alhambra.html?55click=Highlight

UNESCO - World Heritage Site

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/314

UNESCO - World Heritage List of sites

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Oh, patents! Van Cleef & Arpels - Heures Filantes

In addition to the mechanical inventions, invoked in the Van Cleef & Arpels Poetic Complications® watches, patented with US utility patents, the series also includes ornamental inventions for which US design patents were granted.

The Heures Filantes (Fleeting Time) Lady Arpels watch, for example, has three associated US design patents (USD):

USD762508 and USD778757 for the watch dial, and
USD787344 for the watch.

Below, three hyperlinked patent drawings, one from each of the three US design patents associated with the Heures Filantes Poetic Complications® watch, are included, with an image of the embodied and marketed product.

USD762508

USD778757

USD787344

Poetic Complicationss®
Heures Filantes Lady Arpels watch

As a reminder a US design patent is different from a US utility patent in that:

a “utility patent” protects the way an article is used and works (35 U.S.C. 101), while a "design patent" protects the way an article looks (35 U.S.C. 171)” (USPTO).

References

Van Cleef & Arpels - The story of Poetic Complications®

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/la-maison/spirit-of-creation/inspiration/poetic-complications.html?55click=Highlight

Herrmann, F. (2017) Van Cleef & Arpels - Poetic complications®

https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2017/12/oh-patents-van-cleef-arpels-poetic.html

USPTO - MPEP - Manual of Patent Examination Procedures

https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/index.html

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Oh, patents! Van Cleef & Arpels – Poetic Complications®

In 2006, the Van Cleef & Arpels' 100-year commemoration included the introduction of a new collection of incomparably designed watches, called Poetic Complications®.

The term complication in watch- and clockmaking refers to any added design feature, beyond just hours and minutes. Thus, for example, the design of seconds and the date, or of alarms and automatic rewind, are each considered additional complications in a given timepiece. These added functions require more parts and labor, both to design and integrate with the more basic hour and minute functions. They add layers of complexity to the timepiece.

Thus, the Van Cleef & Arpels Poetic Complications® timepieces not only tell time, they have animated dials that tell enchanting stories of time, inspired by fairies and ballerinas, nature, astronomy, and love. The added animations, in combination with the art of high-end jewelry-making, create hugely more complicated timepieces, requiring thousands of hours to produce, and the collaboration of many different master craftspersons, as you can see in the included video, for just one of the Poetic Complications® timepieces.

The complications in this Poetic Complications® collection of timepieces are each patented inventions. The following European patents disclose a few of the complication inventions invoked in the Poetic Complications® collection of Van Cleef & Arpels watches.

EP3242166 (A1) ― 2017-11-08 - Mechanism for triggering an animation
EP3239786 (A1) ― 2017-11-01 - Mechanism for driving an animation of a clock movement
EP3232275 (A1) ― 2017-10-18 - Winding mechanism for a timepiece comprising at least two barrels, and timepiece comprising such a mechanism
EP3032356 (A2) ― 2016-06-15 - Musical watch
EP2993533 (A1) ― 2016-03-09 - Timepiece

The video below shows one of the Poetic Complications® watches, inspired by the spirit of nature, with its intricate and fluttering, butterfly-driven dial.

Reference

Van Cleef & Arpels - Poetic Complications®

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/collections/watches/poetic-complication.html

Van Cleef & Arpels - The Story of Poetic Complications®

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/ru/en/la-maison/spirit-of-creation/inspiration/poetic-complications.html

Van Cleef & Arpels - The Poetry of Time®

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/ru/en/la-maison/spirit-of-creation/inspiration/the-poetry-of-time.html

Friday, December 22, 2017

Oh, patents! Van Cleef & Arpels - The Galileo Mystery Clock

Whether it was a fascination with illusions and magic, or because the mechanical aspects of a clock were perceived as aesthetically incompatible with the artistic beauty of jewelry, many watches and clocks of the early 20^th century concealed all of the gears and cogwheels of the designs. Indeed, it was even perceived unsightly for women to wear timepieces, and so Van Cleef & Arpels began creating women’s watches where not only the gears, but also the dials, were completely hidden, albeit accessible, within mesmerizing bracelets and necklaces.

Galileo Clock 1998

In any event, the technical craftsmanship involved in concealing the driving mechanisms of timepieces, in pedestals for example, or in creating the illusion of magical mechanics, produced timepieces that became known as “mystery clocks”, in the 1920s.

Scrolling forward in time, as part of the 100-year celebration of Van Cleef & Arpels, the company revisited the mystery clock with the creation of the Galileo Clock. This mystery clock features a bear concealing all the gears, but the bear is no longer an ornamental part of the pedestal, connected the dial frame, which it drives. The bear also also orbits around a frame, together with the dial, and sparkles with diamonds. Thus, there are two concealed and nested mechanisms, one in the surrounding frame, driving the bear, and one inside the bear, driving the dial frame, and the two hands of the clock,

This double mystery clock invention was disclosed in the US utility patent US5878003, titled Mystery Clock, and filed in 1996.

The abstract of this patent is included below with two of the figure drawings, respectively showing the bear and dial within the driving frame (Fig. 1), and the gears within the bear (Fig. 3) driving the dial and the clock hands. An image of the embodiment of this invention, marketed as the Van Cleef & Arpels 1998 Galileo Clock, is also included above.

A clock, called a "mystery" clock because of its almost totally transparent nature, comprising a transparent dial bearing reference markers (11), a minute indicator, transparent except in the area of a reading pointer (28') and an hour indicator, also transparent except in the area of a reading pointer (26'), indicators and dial having a common geometric axis (Y) and being carried by a frame or surround (20) and at least part of these indicators and dial having teeth at their periphery, masked by the surround (20), for driving them in rotation, in relation to the surround (20), about said axis (Y). [Abstract US5878003]

Reference

Van Cleef & Arpels - Mysterious clocks

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/me/en/la-maison/icons/historic-pieces/mysterious-clocks.html?55click=Highlight

Van Cleef & Arpels - The Beginnings of Watchmaking

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/me/en/la-maison/icons/historic-pieces/the-beginnings-of-watch-making.html

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Oh, patents! Van Cleef & Arpels – Ring between fingers™

Perléé™

Nearly all of the Van Cleef & Arpels contemporary collections of jewelry include a Ring between fingers™. This is a ring with a 90-degree opening where both ends of the ring are ornamentally designed with stone settings, or other transformative designs.

For example, the Perlée™ collection of the Ring between fingers™ includes a stone setting on one side of the opening, and a diamond-paved setting on the other side. The Magic Alhambra® Ring between fingers™ collection includes a clover design on each side, made of a variety of stones. The Cosmos™ Ring between fingers™ includes two flowers with three diamond-studded, heart-shaped petals, on each side of the opening.

Magic Alhambra®

Alternatively, the Lotus Flower version of the Ring between fingers™ contains a swivel mechanism, so that the ornamental lotus flower design can swivel together to form a single ring, or fold back into a Ring between fingers™, covering two or three fingers. (See video below).

Thus, while the Ring between fingers™ slips on a single finger, the stones, or other ornaments on each side of the ring opening, are positioned between fingers, as if they were “floating”, which results in an illusion of two rings, or even three rings if there are two ornaments mounted on a single side, or if one ornament spreads out, such as for the tail feathers of a bird of paradise.

Cosmos™

All these varying aspects of the Ring between fingers™ were, in fact, disclosed, as an invention, in the French utility patent FR2190389, titled Bague à deux chatons (Ring with two settings), granted in 1974. Interestingly, the patent includes the envisionment of many variations in the ornamental aspects of the design, and especially at the two ends of the open ring. Such creative variations have indeed played out exactly as envisioned, in the many embodiments of the ring through time, in the spectacular collections of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry.

Two Butterfly Collection

Figure 1, extracted from this French patent, is included with several embodiments of the ring with two settings, trademarked as Ring between fingers™, in the Perlée™, Cosmos™, Magic Alhambra®, and two Butterfly Collections of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry.

The video below shows the transformation of the Ring between fingers™ in the Lotus Collection of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry.

References

Van Cleef & Arpels

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en.html

Van Cleef and Arpels - Ring between fingers™ collections

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/me/en/search/search.html?srchTags=BAGUESENTRELESDOIGTS&srchSecondary=CREATIONS&srchText=Between+the+finger+rings&isAvail=false&prodSort=&tokenNumber=0.7071224296420329

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Oh, patents! Van Cleef & Arpels - More transformational jewelry

Zip it open, and it's a necklace. Zip it closed, and it's a
bracelet!

The Zip necklace is another famous and historical Van Cleef & Arpels transformational jewelry design. Contrary to the unique pieces of custom jewelry produced by Van Cleef & Arpels, the Zip necklace was produced in many different ornamental variations, for example as shown in the included video and image.

Granted in 1939, the French patent FR838498, titled Fermeture rapide ornementée, disclosed the staggered and interlocking female and male parts of a zipper, an already well-known type of fastener. The patent also disclosed a mobile slider that alternately brings the female and male parts together, or separates them. Finally, the patent included the envisionment of an indefinite number of ornamental designs, on each side of the zipper, partly as a way of concealing the metal tracks supporting the interlocking female and male parts.

The embodiment of this invention resulted in a transformational piece of jewelry that was necklace when the zipper was open, and bracelet when the zipper was closed, with the upper part of the necklace unhinged and removed (as shown the video).

A patent figure drawing is included showing the staggered and interlocking male and female parts of the zipper. The image above shows one of the exquisite marketed embodiments of this invention.

The included video shows how the piece transforms, from necklace to bracelet.

Reference
Van Cleef & Arpels - The Zip Necklace

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/eu/fr/la-maison/spirit-of-creation/innovation/the-zip-necklace.html

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Oh, patents! Van Cleef & Arpels transformational jewelry

Van Cleef & Arpels have produced more than one piece of jewelry that is functionally fluid, morphing from bracelet to necklace, to brooch, to earrings and back again. However, the first transformational piece was patented in 1938.

Titled Bijou à transformations multiples, the French patent FR884209 was granted on August 8, 1938, to the Van Cleef & Arpels Company.

FR884209 discloses a ribbon, consisting of a metal cable (1), and a clip (3) designed with several tracks (7) and pins (4) for the purposes of threading the cable, and restraining it at any given point. The cable also has end means (5, 6) designed both ornamentally as a pendant, and technically for attaching extensions. Thus, the cable can slide through the clip, which opens and closes with a spring mechanism (2), enabling to adjust, and pin down, cable sizes to a bracelet (Fig. 5), a choker (Fig. 4), a long, medium, short, single or double stranded necklace. The clip was also designed so that the cable could loop back (Fig. 3) into the tracks for added flexibility of function. Finally, the clip was also envisioned so that it could be ornamentally designed as a brooch and/or earrings.

This first Van Cleef and Arpels transformational piece of jewelry was marketed as the “passe-partout necklace". The 1938 marketed product displays an ornamental design of the clip in the shape of flowers, studded with precious stones.

Images showing various transformations of the historical “passe-partout” piece are included below. Figures 1 to 9 of the patent are also included to illustrate the clip design (Figs 7, 8 and 9), the tracks and restraining mechanism (Figs 1, 2 and 3), as well as some of the envisioned possibilities of wearing the piece (Figs 4, 5 and 6).

References

VanCleef & Arpels – Passe-Partout Necklace

http://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/la-maison/icons/historic-pieces/the-passe-partout-necklace.html?55click=Highlight

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Oh, patents! Van Cleef & Arpels' Serti mystérieux

(Alfred) Van Cleef was to (Estelle) Arpels, what Romeo was to Juliet… (minus the dysfunctional families). Indeed, quite to the contrary, Estelle Arpels was the daughter of precious stone dealers, and Alfred Van Cleef was the son of stonecutters. The product is a history of some of the most exquisite jewelry ever created, in a spirit that appears always keenly aware of the love that fueled the foundation of the company in 1906, and that continues to ignite all of its activity. Van Cleef & Arpels (originally Alfred Van Cleef and brother in-law Charles Arpels) remain a family jewelry business (including timepieces), albeit of global proportions.

The company quickly established itself as prestigious jewelers, creating award-winning jewelry and timepieces, at major universal craft fairs, in the early 20^th century. For example, the Bracelet aux roses (Rose bracelet), won the Grand Prize at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels (International Decorative and Industrial Art Fair); and pieces inspired by the Far East, such as the iconic Chapeau Chinois (Chinese Hat) set, won prizes at the 1933 Exposition coloniale internationale (International Colonial Fair).

Famous people, such as the Duke and Duchess (Wallis Simpson) of Windsor or Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, also commissioned Van Cleef & Arpels for jewelry, resulting in equally famous pieces, such as the sapphire Jarretière (garter) bracelet. Since then, the company’s most famous pieces have been retrospectively exhibited at major museums such as the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design in NYC, in 2011; and France’s Musée des Arts Decoratifs, in 2012.

Among the many hundreds of Van Cleef & Arpels (VCA) patents filed in France, in the US, and in international patent families, Le serti mystérieux (Mystery set) is perhaps one the most famous inventions. The French patent, FR764966, titled Dispositif pour monter les pierres précieuses (Device for mounting precious stones) and filed in 1933, disclosed a way of setting precious stones for jewelry, where the setting is completely concealed. The invention was intended to resolve the prior art of small claw paved settings for precious stones, which were not only visible on the surface of the stone, but which also required a lot of material on the back of the stone. Thus, in the prior art of stone settings, the back of the mounting also obscured the stones, making them less brilliant.

Particularly, the invention consists in the parallel notching of a stone, so that it can slide between the small tracks of a setting. In this new inventive way, the setting becomes invisible on the surface of the stone, and far less obstructive in the back of the piece too, allowing light to enter for more stone brilliance.

Figures 2, 4 and 5 of the patent are included to show the tracks of the setting (3, 4) from various perspectives, and the notching of the precious stones, enabling them to slide between the tracks. A short Youtube video tutorial is also included to show the concealed setting of vintage Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry.