Just Because Ringing In The Year Of The Dragon With A Round-Up Of Eight Watches (And One Bonus Timepiece)

This is the "Year of the Wood Dragon." The Chinese zodiac calendar rotates in 12-year cycles, one for each zodiac sign, but then extends even further due to the fact that each 12-year cycle has one of five rotating elemental symbols. That makes a total 60-year calendar. According to one source that helped me brush up on my Chinese horoscope knowledge, "Wood Dragons are very lively and enthusiastic, charming their way into every social circle with a dash of self-confidence," so I'm keeping that in mind we take a look at how different brands have executed on this motif. Regardless, the release of so many limited editions and unique pieces just goes to show how strong the Chinese market is for watch brands.

One other thing to know before we dig in is the importance of the dragon and the pearl. The motif is featured in a number of the watches that came out this year, so it felt best not to repeat myself. You can read one version of the story for yourself. But, in short, you'll often see a dragon clutching or chasing a pearl, which represents wisdom and power, while the dragon represents prosperity and good luck. And now, the watches themselves.

When it was released 12 years (one full Zodiac cycle) ago, Blancpain achieved a world's first with the first serially-produced watch with this specific complication (Chinese and Gregorian calendar). Others have come along since then and the standard model has featured a white enamel dial since then. But now the watch sports a new green grand feu enamel dial, and rose gold case. The watch also has ared gold winding rotor with the scene of a dragon chasing a red ruby and a Chinese character engraving of the words "dragon" and "wood."

The watch still has its main features which we covered in a previous article as the movement hasn't been updated since release. That also means it's quite a big watch; 45mm by 15.1mm in fact. But the newly updated dial and case combination might be enough to entice people to fight over this 50 piece limited edition. The watch is price on request, but I'd imagine the price would be somewhere around $75,000 or $80,000 when looking at the market.

While Blancpain went for a practical approach to Chinese New Year, Breguet went for a very intricate, artful (and in one case incredibly expensive) approach instead. The first is the (frankly stunning) Classique Double Tourbillon Dragon ref. 5345. The brand released its first double tourbillon in 2006, with the tourbillons on a hand-guillochéd rotating platform, and the hour hand acts as the bridge of one tourbillon. Here, a hand-engraved gold dragon (clutching a pearl made of mother-of-pearl in its talons) weaves between tourbillons secured to the two barrels. The watch has 60 hours of power reserve, but frankly, that probably doesn't matter much when you look at the engraving (and when I tell you the price).

The watch, measuring 46mm 16.8mm, is cased in platinum (of course). But if that's not enough, the watch is a special order piece offered to clients where they can customize the dragon's shape, color, motif and more. All this for – wait for it – €817,000.

Looking for something more affordable? The Classique Dragon ref. 7145 is, above anything else, a show of the immense talent of the artists at Breguet. Using two shades of red, grand feu enamel has a hand-engraved dragon in rose gold, surrounded by clouds and chasing a mother-of-pearl disc. Frankly, it's lovely to look at, and the rose gold case matches the dial well. The watch is also quite wearable at 40mm by 6.9mm with the super thin caliber 502.3 automatic-winding movements. With all that work and only eight pieces (because eight is lucky in Chinese), the watch will cost €82,800. Hey, I said it was more affordable than the last, not affordable, period.

Some of the most beautiful lacquer work this year comes from Chopard, with the 12th year of their use of Urushi lacquer for the dial, hand-crafted in Japan by a world-renowned artisan using the Maki-e technique. The golden dragon has caught its pearl (good for him; everyone else is still trying) and has some pretty comical eyes, but as a whole, it just works. Plus, kudos to the company for not just going with red and gold as the main colors like most other brands.

The watch was released as a limited edition of 88 watches (again, eight is a lucky number, so the more eights, the better), but that also meant 88 dials. All of the dials were made in the workshops of the century-old company Yamada Heiando and crafted by master artist Minori Koizumi. Each one took at least 20 hours, which means a bit over 73 full days of work for all these dials. For this technique, gold flakes are placed between layers of lacquer made from the sap of the Toxicodendron vernicifluum tree. Layer on layer, the dial is born.

The watch itself is lovely. The case is made of rose gold and has a display caseback through which you can view the wonderful 3.30 mm-thick in-house L.U.C 96.17-L micro-rotor movement. A thin movement like that also means a thin (and small) case: 39.5mm by 6.8mm. I recently had a brand say that they don't do watches smaller than 40mm for pieces with enamel work because its a smaller palette. Well, Chopard snuck under that number by 0.5mm and because of that I say: you can too, other brand! Don't let your dreams stay dreams!

For all that I think the really impressive thing is the price. For €30,100 you get a great movement, great measurements, and incredible craftsmanship.

I can't tell you why, but this is my favorite execution of a dragon in the roundup. Despite it's angry and serious appearance, there's an almost whimsical quality to it. And yet, it sounds like it was incredibly difficult to craft. The back of this Reverso was not a blank canvas of rose gold but a black grand feu enamel back, which was then worked by a master engraver in the company's Métiers Rares workshop. The process takes over the course of 80 hours with ten different-sized chisels. The watch is otherwise a standard 45.5mm x 27.4mm x 9.73mm Reverso with JLC's manually-wound Calibre 822. But with all that extra work, the watch is only available made-to-order and at a tremendous price: $107,000.

Finally, thanks to Longines, we have an actually affordable option on the list, running only $3,150, and it's their first-ever zodiac timepiece. I hate to tell you, though, it's already sold out. So much for waiting to open your presents until Chinese New Year.

The watch was designed with help from Chinese artist Zinan Lam who designed the motif on the caseback. The peach blossom motif is now a dragon lifting its head with Longines' winged hourglass redesigned into a dragon ball or pearl. The dial is more straightforward, a bold red with gilt hour markers. Inside the 38.5mm case is the caliber L899.5 with 72 hours of power reserve. But unfortunately, like I said, all 888 pieces are gone. I figure this isn't the last zodiac piece Longines will make after that kind of success.

TAG Heuer actually released two watches for the Year of the Dragon (all the way back in October 2023 – why so early? What's the rush here?). Since they all seem to be gone, I decided to stick with the gold and red motif that looks amazing on the Carrera here. The watch has a 42mm by 14.33mm rose gold case, 18K rose gold plated sunray brushed dial, two red "azuré" dials, and one incredibly noticeably non-matched white date window. Above that date window is a Chinese dragon symbol.

The rest of the watch's features are a bit more redeeming. The chronograph hand is red lacquer, the minute and hour hands are gold, and the gold hour markers have matching red lacquer and white Super-LumiNova. The most fun aspect might be the Chinese Dragon figure printed around the sapphire glass on the back, through which you see the Calibre 02 movement. The gold version was labeled "One of 50" while the steel version was limited to 300 pieces (and had a silver dial). The gold version ran $22,550 while the steel watch was $6,300. It just launched a bit too early for my taste.

The last "Year of the Dragon" watch made the list for it's great engraved dragon and striking pearl. Ulysse Nardin's Blast Tourbillon has the UN-172 self-winding microrotor tourbillon movement with a rotor at 12 o'clock and the flying tourbillon at 6 o'clock. A pearl (made unsurprisingly of mother-of-pearl) sits on the flying tourbillon which the static but beautifully hand-engraved and micro-painted dragon will always chase but never get closer to. The whole thing is housed in a rose gold and black-DLC titanium case measuring 45mm wide. It doesn't seem like Ulysse Nardin made this one a limited edition so you're in luck, if you have $100,600, that is.

I saved what is possibly the best for last for two reasons. One, it's not a watch, and we're a watch website. Two, this automaton clock from Parmigiani Fleurier is incredibly complex and hard to wrap my head around. But frankly, you don't need to understand the technical aspects to understand how beautifully crafted this piece is and how engaging the automaton function is as a storytelling device. It also consists of 1,000 components and took 5,800 working hours to build.

A brief sidetrack here to say that Parmigiani Fleuier doesn't get nearly enough credit for their restoration department, which I was able to visit last year. The genius team there has to look at marvelous pieces of horology and mechanics – objects rarely if ever, working properly – and intuit from logic and experience what was supposed to happen if the object was working properly. Often its a matter of someone fixing something poorly or even completely wrong over a century ago and having to figure out how far back to try to undo work. Then there's the fact that things like this are a huge passion for Michel Parmigiani. I once heard another industry executive glowingly and admiringly say that Parmigiani was smart enough to start a brand to fund his "actual passion." All this to say, this is exactly who I'd want to buy from if I were in the market for a 280mm (11 inch) storytelling dragon clock.

Let's get to the mechanics first. Designed as a unique piece by Alexia Stenou Parmigiani, the movement measures 112mm by 114mm with the automaton module and has only 17 jewels. It's key-wound and key-set (be still my pocketwatch-loving heart) with an 8-day power reserve. The movement has all the finishing that you'd want, but it might be hard to see as it's all housed inside a 2 kilogram base made of natural rock crystal and solid .925 silver with 10-micron rhodium plating. 

But what does it do? That's the best part. The dragon automaton turns on the base one revolution per hour, pursuing the pearl which it will never reach – fugit irreparabile tempus: "it escapes, irretrievable time" – while the gilded silver ring showing the traditional Chinese 12 hours (one Chinese hour is two hours) rotates every 24 hours. As the dragon seems to approach the pearl, the pearl will "fly" away, moving six times an hour at random. A gong will chime just before the leap so that the owner can watch the pearl jump.

Then there's the decoration. First, Parmigiani points out that since the number nine is of extreme importance in Chinese culture, "the Imperial Dragon presented by Parmigiani Fleurier includes the body parts of nine animals – the head of a camel, the ears of a cow, the antlers of a deer, the neck of a snake, the paws of a tiger, the claws of an eagle, the belly of a mollusk, the scales of a carp, and the mane and beard of a lion." They also mention that the nose has the shape of a mushroom, another symbol of good luck.

The body was sculpted first in wax, then cast in three sections, then crafted from solid silver. While, according to Chinese tradition, a dragon should have 117 scales, this one has 585 (which is divisible by 9) made of natural jade, designed, cut, polished, and individually fixed, then riveted over the entire body. The pearl of knowledge is a white gold sphere surrounded by golden flames, which is embedded in a cameo of precious stones, including white diamonds and rubies and orange and yellow sapphires. 

Price, whether it was for sale – all those kinds of things weren't shared in the press release. I can't afford it and I don't even want to know what it cost. Part of me thinks whatever they asked wasn't enough for this piece of art. Congrats to the Parmigiani Fleurier team for this achievement.