Van Cleef & Arpels is one of the most important and recognized companies in the sector. Their gemstones of high quality are the hallmarks that make the difference. We invite you to meet the career of the company whose beginning was forged from a love story.

At 22 Place Vendôme in Paris, it was opened in 1906 the first boutique Van Cleef & Arpels, French brand of jewelry, luxury watches and perfumes. It was ten years after founding the company, in 1896, the year Esther Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef got married.

Esther was the daughter of Salomon Arpels, a dealer in precious stones, while Alfred Van Cleef was a respected merchant in Paris. The alliance was more than a couple, as it started-up one of the largest jewelry companies in the world, through a partnership with his brother in law, Alfred Charles Arpels.

The mark was registered at the same time the boutique opened in Vendôme, where also worked Jules and Louis, brothers of Esther, giving shape to a family business whose epicenter were precious jewels with precious stones. Also, the mark had a secret technique: a curious setting called "invisible or mysterious", and as its name suggests, is not visible, giving the appearance of homogeneity in the piece.

Alfred died in 1938, leaving his post to his daughter Rachel Renee. Until one year after his death, the company opened some branches such as Nice or Monte Carlo. But the final year of consolidation was 1939, when it opened a branch in New York at Rockefeller Center by Claude Arpels (second generation family). This way took off the firm that became the first jewelry company that opened boutiques in Japan and China.