Blancpain’s Chinese calendar Villeret model is a real work of art, I mean how can you not admire that movement and its delicate, intricate metalworking? It’s also a very smart marketing move as China is perhaps the biggest market for Swiss watches over $3000 in the world.

Here’s the word from Blancpain;

A complication exclusively developed by Blancpain, the Traditional Chinese Calendar is based on fundamental principles established for millennia and profoundly rooted in Chinese tradition.

On its dial, the hours, minutes and the Gregorian calendar rub shoulders with the main indications of the Chinese calendar: traditional double-hours, day, month with indication of leap months, signs of the zodiac, as well as the five elements and the ten celestial stems.

The moon phases, defining traditional Chinese months and a key element in all Blancpain complete calendars, are also presented.

To mark the transition to the year of the tiger 2022 (1 February 2022 to 21 January 2023), Blancpain has created a new edition of this emblematic timepiece: a model in platinum with a white grand feu enamel dial whose oscillating weight is engraved with the Chinese zodiac sign of the year, the tiger.

Useful and symbolic, the Traditional Chinese Calendar invites fine watchmaking enthusiasts to consider different approaches to the concept of time as complementary. This one is available in 50 individually numbered timepieces.

More here.