This year will see the launch of the fourteenth Blancpain Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel.

While other brands are trying to woo Asian clients by changing the color of dials to lucky red or re-homing the zodiac animals on them, Blancpain has long been operating on a whole other level, creating watches with complicated calendar indications. Last year, the company embarked on their second twelve-year zodiac cycle.

While their first twelve models were mainly in platinum with white dials, the brand introduced a watch in red gold with a dial coated in green enamel for 2024. This year, the Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025 for the Year of the Snake is housed in a platinum case measuring 45.2 mm in diameter with a green Grand Feu enamel dial.

The depiction of the Wood Snake — the animal sign for 2025 — appears on the rotor of the caliber 3638 movement comprising 464 components. It took five years of R&D to make the movement in the Grandes Complications workshop.

A sexagenary (sixty-day) calendar system is used in the Chinese zodiac, which includes ten "Heavenly Stems", twelve "Earthly Branches", and twelve animal signs. The calendar system also involves the five elements.

On the watch by Blancpain, you can see this year's animal symbol depicted in an aperture at 12 o'clock (each of the twelve "Earthly Branches" is linked to an animal sign: 子 - Rat, 丑 - Ox, 寅 - Tiger, 卯 - Rabbit, 辰 - Dragon, 巳 - Snake, 午 - Horse, 未 - Goat, 申 - Monkey, 酉 - Rooster, 戌 - Dog, and 亥 - Pig). 

They're found in every cycle of twelve: the years, months, and days. Days in the Chinese zodiac are divided into twelve double hours. They're displayed in a subdial directly below the aperture at 12 o'clock. The outer ring is marked with the Chinese characters for the twelve double hours (every hour in between is marked with a dot).

At 3 o'clock, you can find a subdial combining the ten "Heavenly Stems" (甲 - jiǎ, 乙- yǐ, 丙 - bǐng, 丁- dīng, 戊- wù, 己 - jǐ, 庚 - gēng, 辛 - xīn, 壬 - rén, 癸 - guǐ), the five elements (水 - Water, 土 - Earth, 木 - Wood, 金 - Metal, and 火 - Fire) with the yin-yang symbol in the center.

A place at 6 o'clock is reserved for the moon-phase display. At 9 o'clock, you can see the indication for the lunar months, intercalary month (the Chinese zodiac calendar also has a thirteenth month), and days.