One of my favourite times of the year in the watch industry is when watch brands of all varieties come together to celebrate Chinese New Year. It leads to some of their most creative and artistic designs as they find new and interesting ways to interpret the Chinese zodiac, centred around the year’s mythological animal. Last year embraced the dragon and 2025 sees the watch world take on the Year of the Snake.
Compared to the dragon, which is outgoing and motivated, the snake is a lot more reserved in its symbology. It’s known for its cunning and patience as well as its ruthlessness when it come time to strike. However, it’s also associated with healing and reflection. Making 2025 a time for taking stock and preparation. Or, you know, it’s a great reason to produce some snake themed watches.
Louis Vuitton Escale ‘Snakes Jungle’ Cabinet of Wonders Watch
The Louis Vuitton Escale ‘Snakes Jungle’ for Chinese New Year forms part of a Cabinet of Wonders Watch series dedicated to oriental themes. While the other watches in the series are cool in their own right, the ‘Snakes Jungle’ is the emerald jewel in the crown, showing a reticulated serpent in a lush bamboo forest. The snake is produced using a combination of micro-sculpture, engraving and champlevé enamel.
Adding a sense of authenticity to the jungle tableau, the forest background is made from marquetry, a technique that creates a mosaic-like pattern from wood, parchment and straw. In 14 shades of green, it makes for a vibrant and verdant setting.
More details at Louis Vuitton.
Vacheron Constantin have been producing watches for the Chinese New Year for many, many years now. For the most part it’s the same watch dressed in appropriate animal garb for the year. This year that means a coiled cobra in pink or white gold on top of a matching rock set against a grand feu enamel background.
The timekeeping elements of the display are dispersed into the four quadrants of the watch in small aperture displays. There’s hours, minutes, day and date, each powered by the 2460 G4 calibre. An automatic movement with a 40-hour power reserve and 22k gold rotor.
More details at Vacheron Constantin.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Snake’
Jaeger-LeCoultre are following up their dragon timepiece from last year with a snake model in the same style. That means a sleek, black, grand feu dial embellished with a golden snake. The serpent is depicted rearing its head among the clouds with its forked tongue flicking out of its mouth.
As a Reverso model, the main timekeeping elements are on the other side of the watch. There’s an equally sleek enamel enamel dial from which the central gold hands rise with the classic sharp angles of its Art Deco design. Inside is the manual calibre 822 with 42-hour power reserve.
More details at Jaeger-LeCoultre.
Dior Grand Soir Year of the Snake
I’ll admit that I’m not Dior’s biggest fan when it comes to horology but their Chinese New Year watches always kill it. The Grand Soir Year of the Snake paints the titular animal in an almost ethereal light with pale white, jewelled skin outlined in gold. It’s depicted slithering through a blossom tree accompanied by a host of butterflies, also rendered in precious gold.
Its 18k gold bezel is set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds emphasising the haute jewellery aspects even further. The case itself measures 36mm and houses an automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve. It’s not the type of watch I typically enjoy but I think there is an objective prettiness in the gentle colour palette used.
More details at Dior.
Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon Red Gold 41.5 “Year of the Snake”
One of the most spectacular launches each Chinese New Year comes from Arnold & Son, who typically release a new rendition of either/both of the Perpetual Moon and Luna Magna wristwatches. For 2025 the Perpetual Moon takes centre stage with its eye-catching moonphase complication at 12 o’clock, looming high above a beautifully crafted golden snake sculpture.
The backdrop to the snake, which is wrapped around a tree branch, is an aventurine glass dial creating a sea of stars. Completing the design is a pagoda structure offset towards 4 o’clock. Turning the watch over to look at the caseback reveals a movement as beautiful as the dial, the calibre A&S1512, a manual winding movement with 90-hour power reserve.
More details at Arnold & Son.
Blancpain Villeret Calandrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025
Similar to Vacheron Constantin, Blancpain have been producing Chinese New Year watches for a long, long time. Traditionally it’s an updated version of the Calandrier Chinois Traditionnel with a white dial, but for 2025 they’ve swapped the dial to adhere to the recent green dial collection. It’s an advanced perpetual calendar that keeps track of not only the date according to the Gregorian calendar, but also the diverse elements of the Chinese zodiac.
The snake finds itself represented on the back of the watch, on the rotor of the calibre 3638. It’s a veteran movement at this point, first being introduced back in 2005, two decades ago. It’s equipped with user-friendly correctors enabling fast and easy adjustments while protecting the movement.
More details at Blancpain.
Oris ProPilot X Year of the Snake Limited Edition
Oris are not a brand traditionally associated with the celebration of Chinese New Year so it’s interesting to see them dip their toes in with the launch of the ProPilot X Year of the Snake Limited Edition. It’s their industrial styled pilot’s watch with sharp, facetted surfaces and a fluted bezel. The angle of the fluting on the bezel is almost reminiscent of a serpent so it’s a natural fit.
In honour of the snake, the skeletonised dial has been presented in green with a scale-like pattern around the periphery. On top of that, the power reserve indicator subdial has a golden hand in the shape of a snake’s tongue with a forked tip. It is slightly disconcerting to have a disembodied tongue on the display but also kind of fun.
More details at Oris.
Longines Conquest Heritage Year of Snake
In addition to snake imagery, there are plenty of other ways for watch designers to celebrate Chinese New Year. Many offer theirs in limited editions in multiples of 8, China’s lucky number attributed to wealth and prosperity. For similar reasons, red is a colour attributed to good fortune and so you often see it used on New Year watches, which is exactly what Longines have done with the Conquest Heritage Year of Snake
It has a soft gradient red dial that gets darker around the periphery, paired with striking, gilt golden hour markers and hands. However, the snake isn’t completely absent as artist Wu Jian’an designed the caseback engraving featuring a serpent holding a Lingzhi mushroom in its mouth, another sign of good fortune. The watch is 40mm in diameter and houses the calibre L888.5 with 72-hour power reserve.
More details at Longines.
IWC Portofino Automatic Moon Phase 37 Year of the Snake
IWC’s offering for Chinese New Year sits solidly in the realm of unisex design at a diameter of 37mm in steel. It has a burgundy dial with gold accents, similar to the Longines featured elsewhere in this article. Red and gold are important colours in Chinese tradition so their use here makes a lot of sense. Plus, as Chinese New Year is also known as the Lunar New Year, the integration of a moonphase complication at 12 o’clock ties the piece together.
A nod to the animal of the moment can be found through the exhibition caseback, which reveals a custom rotor for the calibre 32800 in the shape of a snake. Its coils wind their way around the oscillating mass in celebration.
More details at IWC.
Jacquet Droz Ophidian Hour
Jacquet Droz create some truly spectacular unique pieces and the Ophidian Hour fits the bill perfectly. There are actually two unique pieces here, one produced with a Mother-of-Pearl dial and the other with an earthy mineral called Sonora Sunrise. They each feature large, enamelled snake whose scale patterns have been designed by John Howe, the famous artist behind the Lord of the Rings novels (peak nerd moment there).
The name of these watches, Ophidian Hour, refers to the fact that the snake is an integral part of the timekeeping display. This is Jacquet Droz’s first handless timepiece, instead relying on two rotating disks to show the hours and minutes. The Snake’s head serves as the time indicator for the hours and its tail points at the minutes.
More details at Jacquet Droz.
Breguet Classique 7145 Lunar New Year 2025
Breguet’s 8 piece limited edition watch for Chinese New Year is the Classique 7145 Lunar New Year 2025. It has a rose gold case at a 40mm diameter but the dial is unquestionably the main focus of the watch. It features a hand-engraved image of a snake that integrated many forms of guilloché to create a vivid and vibrant picture. The green foliage that’s also present on the display is hand-painted to give it a subtly shifting tone.
Powering the Classique 7145 is the automatic calibre 502.3 with 45-hour power reserve. It has a guilloché rotor in gold that has a pattern reminiscent of a snake’s scales. The silicon components also ensure good magnetic field resistance, improving the reliability of the Breguet style hands.
More details at Breguet.
Swatch Golden Red Bamboo and Blue and Golden Lithe Dancer
Swatch always bring the colour when it comes to Chinese New Year watches and 2025 is no different. Both designs feature a stylised snake’s coil beneath a bamboo shoot, a reference to the fact that 2025 is the Year of the Wood Snake. If you’re unaware, the Chinese zodiac is not only split into animals but materials as well.
The first of the two, Golden Red Bamboo, is the more feminine with a super slim design and 38mm diameter. Blue and Golden Lithe Dancer is much larger with a huge size of 47mm with a golden bezel adding a strength to its profile.
More details at Swatch.
Panerai Luminor Perpetual Calendar PAM01688
Panerai have kept things classy with the Luminor Perpetual Calendar PAM01688, a rose gold perpetual calendar with Chinese script on the dial. It’s the first of the Lunar New Year watches that has zero references to snakes whatsoever, instead relying on the important symbols of red and gold. As well as the number 88 that they’ve snuck into the reference number.
In terms of functions, the calibre P.4100 is equipped with hours, minutes, small seconds, day, date, month, year, leap year, 24 hour GMT and a power reserve indicator, all spread across the dial and rear of the movement. It also has a 3-day power reserve, which combined with the reserve indicator should help to keep it ticking away.
More details at Panerai.
Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Year of the Snake 2025
In classic Hublot fashion, their watch for Chinese New Year is bombastic and over the top. But let’s be honest, if there’s one occasion where it’s acceptable, it’s this. The 42mm ceramic tonneau case is topped with a ceramic bezel engraved with a snake skin texture that’s impressively detailed.
On the dial, a golden snake winds its way across the dial, weaving its lithe body around the tricompax chronograph subdials. The head of the snake can be seen resting below the chronograph seconds hand at 12 o’clock.
More details at Hublot.
Chaumet Espiègleries Tresors d’Afrique
Technically the Chaumet Espiègleries Tresors d’Afrique is a celebration of Africa rather than China but with the prominent serpent on its dial, it’s as ready for the Year of the Snake as any other watch here. Plus, I find the gold frog perched on the snake’s head really charming in a silly, nonsensical kind of way.
The dial of the watch is made from blood jasper and the snake is made from gold with jewelled scales in tsavorite garnet and yellow sapphire. The curls of the snake wrap around the flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock with a leaf-shaped tourbillon cage. It’s a manual winding movement with a 100-hour power reserve.
More details at Chaumet.
Oracle Time