The Wrist Has to Travel

A quartet of bracelets by Van Cleef & Arpels takes lapidary lovers on an architectural tour of Italy

- MITCHELL OWENS

When 18th-century gentlemen headed to Europe to partake of the Grand Tour-a crucial step in a civilizing education-they often recorded cultural sites in charming paintings, in much the same way that today's globe-trotters snap away with smartphones. Van Cleef & Arpels, the Paris jeweler that was founded in 1906, has taken those watercolor reveries as inspiration for a new array of treasures: four bracelets set with impressionistic combinations of gemstones-sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, and more-that evoke the landscapes of Rome, Florence, Naples, and Venice.