New York City, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Houston and Las Vegas. It also maintains stores in Naples, Palm Beach, as well as a location in Aspen. The Chicago boutique opened in 2001 at 636 North Michigan Avenue and moved to a larger location within the Drake Hotel in November 2011 while the New York City flagship store was redesigned in 2013. The brand expanded to Australia in 2016, opening a boutique at Collins Street, Melbourne. The following year, another boutique opened at Castlereagh Street, Sydney. A second Melbourne boutique is set to open in Chadstone Shopping Centre in 2018. The Mystery Setting On 2 December 1933, Van Cleef and Arpels received French Patent No. 764,966 for a proprietary gem setting style it calls Serti Mysterieux, or "Mystery Setting", a technique employing a setting where the prongs are invisible. Each stone is faceted onto gold rails less than two-tenths of a millimeter thick. The technique can require 300 hours of work per piece or more, and only a few are produced each year. Chaumet received an English patent for a similar technique in 1904 as did Cartier in 1933, however neither used the process as extensively. Value In 2010/2011, the company's estimated sales were €450 million in total sales and €45 million in watches. A 1936 Van Cleef & Arpels custom jewelry piece with a "Mystery Setting" sold for $326,500 during an auction at Christie's New York in 2009. Popular culture In the 1971 James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, Van Cleef & Arpels gets mentioned by Bond when Tiffany Case discusses the story behind her name: that she was born at Tiffany & Co. as a pre-term baby. Bond responds that she should be fortunate her name is not Van Cleef & Arpels. In season 4, episode 23 of Frasier, the character Niles Crane is speaking on his mobile phone with his wife Maris, from whom he is recently separated at the time. On the phone, Niles says to Maris 'I miss you more...than Van Cleef would miss Arpels'. In Issue 116 of New X-Men (2001 series), the character Emma Frost, who has recently gained the power to turn into organic diamond, tells a taxi, "the Van Cleef and Arples store on Fifth at Fifty-Seventh, driver. I intend to have myself valued." Bibliography References External links French brands French jewellers Comité Colbert members Jewellery retailers of France Luxury brands Retail companies