Blancpain is delighted to unveil its new Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel to celebrate Chinese New Year 2025, which on 29 January will see the wooden dragon give way to the wooden snake.
For the 14th consecutive year, the Manufacture is uniting East and West in a commemorative timepiece themed according to the zodiac sign of the lunar new year, engraved on the watch’s rotor. Produced in a limited edition, this calendar is the first to pair a platinum case with a green Grand Feu enamel dial.
In 2012, Blancpain achieved a world first with the launch of its Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel wristwatch associating a complex Chinese calendar with the Gregorian date and moon phases, a symbolic conjunction of Eastern and Western traditions. On entering its second 12-year cycle in 2024, the Manufacture revamped the design of the 12 zodiac animals appearing through a 12 o’clock aperture, recalling the legend of the Jade Emperor. In 2025, the Year of the Wood Snake, this restyled animal will appear for the first time on a timepiece featuring a 45.2 mm platinum case framing a green Grand Feu enamel dial.
Renowned for its intuition and perspicacity, the snake takes pride of place on the 22K white gold rotor of this Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025 with its frosted finish. Brought to life in Blancpain’s Métiers d’Art workshop, the reptile has been delicately drawn by in-house artisans. This zodiac sign is accompanied by natural ruby and an engraving in Chinese characters indicating the words ‘serpent’ and ‘wood’.
Powered by Calibre 3638 and its 464 components, the traditional Chinese calendar features a complex mechanism going well beyond that of a perpetual calendar to resemble that of a minute repeater. It springs to life in the Grand Complications workshop at Le Brassus. Resulting from five years of research and development, it comprises three barrels providing an impressive seven-day power reserve. While its complexity is apparent from a first glance at the dial comprising numerous indications, their cleverly arranged layout ensures excellent legibility.
This calendar is enlivened by a set of four hands, accompanied by two apertures. These display the five elements combined with Yin and Yang – linked to the sexagesimal cycle – at 3 o’clock; the Chinese days and months at 9 o’clock; as well as double Chinese hours at 12 o’clock. The apertures provide information on the Chinese leap month at 9 o’clock and the zodiac sign of the current lunar year at 12 o’clock. In addition to this multitude of calendar data, a serpentine hand points to the Gregorian date, while the emblematic Blancpain moon phase appears at 6 o’clock.
Despite its complexity, the Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025 is very user-friendly thanks to its under-lug correctors. Presented as a world first and patented by Blancpain in 2005, these enable the calendar indications to be adjusted simply at the touch of a finger, without any need for additional tools. Discreetly positioned beneath the lugs, these small correctors free the sides from the ‘dimples’ usually found on calendar watches, without compromising the comfortable feel on the wrist. What’s more, if the wearer tries to set the calendar indications when the mechanism is automatically adjusting them – which could otherwise lead to mechanical damage – nothing happens, as the movement is secure.
Paired with a chocolate brown alligator leather strap matching the dial colour, this Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025 is issued in a 50-piece limited edition.
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