Why Are International Watchmakers Celebrating Year Of The Snake?

It’s that time of the year when the marquee watch brands embrace cultural diversity and showcase their finest watchmaking skills to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. To celebrate China, one of the biggest luxury markets in the world, and the Chinese New Year, prestigious watchmakers design exclusive timepieces inspired by the zodiac animal of the year.

You can see some of the most creative and artistic expressions by the best in business like Louis Vuitton, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre, centred around an animal from the Chinese zodiac. These limited-edition creations often showcase intricate craftsmanship, incorporating artistic techniques like enamel painting, engraving, and gemstone embellishments to depict the year’s zodiac symbol with precision and elegance.

This year is the ‘Year of the Snake’ and there has been a flurry of activity in the horology universe. Compared to last year’s Dragon, an animal associated with outgoing and motivation, the snake is known for being cunning, for its patience as well as its ruthlessness when it comes to time to strike.

Here are some of the finest Snake-inspired watches of 2025!

1. Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 41.5 Red Gold ‘Year of the Snake’

Arnold & Son’s Perpetual Moon 41.5 ‘Year of the Snake’ is a series of eight timepieces in red gold. Upon an aventurine glass dial base is set a large astronomical mother-of-pearl moon with a manufacture calibre. The dial of the timepiece centres on an undulating snake facing the wearer, wrapped around the branch of the beneficious ginkgo biloba tree. The 18-carat rose gold snake is delicately hand-carved and set against a blue aventurine glass dial. The realistic moon is overlaid with Super-LumiNova. It illuminates the surrounding hand-painted constellations of Ursa Major and Cassiopeia, which are also painted with luminescent material.

2. Hublot Spirit Of Big Bang Year Of The Snake

Hublot has continued its tradition of celebrating the Chinese calendar with the Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Year of the Snake. The contemporary timepiece is an ornate rendition of the snake that extends from the dial to the case and even the strap. The signature open dial reveals the chronograph movement within but the space is also shared by a three-dimensional, the gold-plated snake is crafted with lifelike details and positioned as if slithering around the chronograph’s three counters. The ceramic case features Hublot’s patented One-Click strap changing mechanism, and is topped by a screwed ceramic bezel that is engraved to reveal a pattern of snake scales. This pattern extends to the black rubber strap, which has a uniquely velvet finish with a slight shimmer, even though it is entirely made of a single piece of rubber with an innovative embossing technique. There are only 88 pieces of the Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Year of the Snake available.

3. Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Snake’

To celebrate the 2025 Chinese New Year, Jaeger-LeCoultre has unveiled the Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Snake’. The Reverso was created in 1931 for polo players to protect the watchface, but the functional solution became a must-have for tastemakers over the decades. The blank metal caseback became an artistic blank canvas. It is this caseback that reveals a striking, hand-engraved snake emerging powerfully from a wreath of golden clouds, set against a background of glossy black Grand Feu enamel for Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Snake’. Master engravers at Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture used 10 differently sized chisels to sculpt the metal step by step. It took 80 hours to craft a single Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Snake’. The dial of the Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Snake’ features the same glossy black Grand Feu enamel as the case-back. The elegant, Art Deco-inspired simplicity of the signature Reverso Tribute dial, with its faceted appliqué hour-markers, chemin de fer minutes track and Dauphine hands, places full value on the beauty of the glowing black background. This is a limited-edition made-to-order timepiece.

4. Blancpain Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025

Blancpain’s new Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025 will make way for a wooden snake from last year’s wooden dragon. This is the 14th year the watchmaker has created a commemorative timepiece themed according to the zodiac sign of the lunar new year, engraved on the watch’s rotor. The snake will feature in a 45.2 mm platinum case framing a green Grand Feu enamel dial. 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. 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. This Blancpain Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025 is issued in a 50-piece limited edition.

5. Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet Of Wonders Snake’s Jungle

Part of Louis Vuitton’s Escale Cabinet of Wonders trilogy, the Snake’s Jungle timepiece is a carefully crafted piece de resistance of the métiers d’art and technical virtuosity. The High Watchmaking workshop of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in Geneva has created only 20 pieces using 367 individual pieces of four types of wood, three colours of straw, and two types of parchment for the lush green forest. The snake was crafted using micro-sculpture, engraving and champlevé enamelling. Even the bridges of the LFT023, chronometer-standard movement, are adorned with this talismanic motif, which is associated with good fortune and well-being. The same detail-oriented approach can be found in the timepiece’s calf-leather strap, which was hand-braided to resemble the braided leather hilts of Japanese katana swords, using a technique developed specifically for this collection.