Blancpain’s latest Chinese New Year timepiece marks the transition to the year of the tiger. The 2022 Traditional Chinese Calendar watch combines elements of Gregorian and lunisolar calendars on a white enamel dial inside a 45-mm platinum case. Applied Roman numerals indicate the hours, while Arabic numerals on the periphery of the dial – indicated by a blued-steel hand – follow the Gregorian calendar. A small sub-dial at 12 o’clock denotes traditional Chinese ‘double hours’ in figures and symbols over a 24 cycle. With a yin and yang symbol in its center, the sub-dial at 3 o’clock signals the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) and the ten celestial stems over a cycle of ten years. A third sub-dial at 9 o’clock tracks the lunar months of the Chinese calendar with a blued-steel hand. The inscription on the periphery of this counter uses the longer blued-steel hand to indicate the lunar days – a small circular aperture in this counter turns red when the year has a 13th month. The moon phases are displayed in an aperture above 6 o’clock. Inside the case is the automatic 3638 movement with an impressive 168 hour power reserve. Turning it over, the sapphire crystal case-back reveals a white gold rotor engraved with the figure of a tiger and set with a pink cabochon-cut ruby along with the Côtes de Genève decoration and jewels. Available in a limited edition of 50 pieces.
Blancpain Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar ($87,800.00), blancpain.com
