Van Cleef and Arpels Brought Poetry of Time to Bujairi Terrace

A continuation of Van Cleef and Arpels’ long term dialogue with Saudi Arabia

When Van Cleef and Arpels staged Poetry of Time at Bujairi Terrace in Diriyah, it was positioned as a public encounter with the Maison’s watchmaking universe, one built around emotion, narrative, and the idea that time can be expressed through craft as much as through function. Held from 17 to 24 January 2026, the exhibition arrived as part of Diriyah’s wider cultural calendar, and it landed with clear impact.

The setting mattered. Bujairi Terrace has become a stage for cultural programming that attracts both residents and visitors, and the exhibition used that context well. Poetry of Time was not framed as a retail moment. It was framed as an immersive installation that invited guests to move through the Maison’s codes and inspirations, with watchmaking presented as a discipline of design, mechanics, and storytelling rather than product alone.

The intent behind Poetry of Time is consistent with how Van Cleef and Arpels speaks about its watches. The Maison has long treated watchmaking as a space for imagination, drawing on themes such as love stories, nature, and poetic astronomy, and translating them into pieces that carry narrative alongside precision. In Riyadh, that philosophy was brought forward as experience first, allowing the audience to engage with the creative language behind the complications, automata, and jewelled timepieces that sit within this world.

What made the exhibition feel particularly relevant in Saudi Arabia is the way it met a public that is already visually literate and increasingly interested in craft. During the same week, Van Cleef and Arpels also hosted a hands on clock making workshop for children at Bujairi Terrace, signalling that the activation was designed to educate and involve, not simply to display. It is a small detail, but it points to a broader strategy: build cultural connection through participation.

That approach aligns with the Maison’s wider footprint in the Kingdom, which has steadily expanded through exhibitions and education led initiatives. In Riyadh, Van Cleef and Arpels has previously presented public programming through L’ÉCOLE, including the Time, Nature, Love exhibition at the National Museum of Saudi Arabia, a format that places the Maison’s universe within a learning context rather than a commercial one.

More recently, the Maison has also used its boutique environments in Riyadh as cultural settings, including a dedicated exhibition held at its Solitaire Mall location in 2025, reinforcing a pattern of treating Saudi Arabia as a place for sustained engagement rather than occasional appearances.

Seen through that lens, the success of Poetry of Time at Bujairi Terrace was not only in the atmosphere or the visuals. It was in what it confirmed. Riyadh’s luxury audience is no longer satisfied by access alone. It responds to intent, to substance, and to experiences that respect both cultural context and intellectual curiosity. Poetry of Time worked because it acknowledged that reality, and because it continued an ongoing conversation the Maison has been building in Saudi Arabia through education, exhibitions, and long term presence.