Dates in the diary provide endless opportunities for big brands to reinvent their most popular timepieces, offering watch connoisseurs the unpassable opportunity to add a rare, talking-point piece to their collection.
Not just limited to the Asian market, these exquisite watches are sssseducing on a global stage with all-new dials, metiers d’art touches and the finest materials used with a fitting amount of charm to depict the cycles of the Chinese zodiac.
2025 is the year of the wood snake, and is said to symbolize wisdom, knowledge, growth and transformation – a similar thread that runs through the world of horology, making the occasion a natural fit for an exclusive launch.
Though it might actually be bad fortune to give people clocks for Lunar New Year (often seen as a symbol of time running out), we’re hedging our bets and celebrating with all the extra luck we can get, via 11 of the best Year of the Snake watches.
Bvlgari Serpenti Seduttori
The Year of the Snake belongs to Bvlgari, and the brand offers a new Serpenti Seduttori featuring a new in-house automatic movement, the Lady Solotempo BVS100. Developed over three years, it fits perfectly within the Serpenti’s head, offering a time-only display with hours, minutes, and seconds. At just 19mm in diameter, it boasts a 50-hour power reserve and a 5-gram weight. This model features 36 diamonds accenting the design, and it is also available in multiple metal options, as well as fully bejeweled models.
$13,500, bulgari.com
Swatch The Golden Red Bamboo
Swatch celebrates the Lunar New Year with the Golden Red Bamboo as part of a two-piece Year of the Snake collection. The 38mm model boasts a sun-brushed gold dial with glowing orange hands and a tactile embroidered strap, set in a polished stainless steel case with gold PVD coating. Both watches are crafted from biosourced materials, water-resistant to 3 bar, and powered by Swiss-made quartz movements.
$195, swatch.com
Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 41.5
Arnold & Son marks the occasion with a new Perpetual Moon 41.5 in 18K red gold. This eight-piece limited edition features a 34mm case, a large astronomical moon, and an aventurine glass dial. A hand-carved 18K rose gold snake motif adds artistic detail, while a mother-of-pearl moon is overlaid with Super-LumiNova. The dial also depicts the constellations Ursa Major and Cassiopeia. Powered by the manual A&S1512 caliber movement, it tracks the lunar cycle with impressive accuracy and offers a 90-hour power reserve. Water-resistant to 30 meters, it comes with a blue alligator strap.
CHF 57,200, arnoldandson.com
Longines The Conquest Heritage Year of the Snake Limited Edition
Longines has created a special edition of its Conquest Heritage model, designed by Chinese artist Wu Jian’an. Limited to 2,025 pieces, the watch features an intricately engraved snake coiled around a Lingzhi mushroom on the caseback. The 40mm stainless steel case is paired with a sunray gradient red dial, gilt hands, and indexes. Powered by the Longines L888.5 caliber, it offers superior magnetic resistance and a silicon balance spring. The watch comes with a black leather strap with embossed snake-like details.
$3,150, longines.com
Christian Dior Grand Soir Year of the Snake Limited Edition
Dior’s Grand Soir Year of the Snake is reimagined for Chinese New Year with a stunning 36mm stainless-steel case and a rose-gold bezel set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds. The mother-of-pearl dial features a snake with gold details, rose-gold butterflies, and flowers. Powered by a Sellita SW300 automatic movement with a 42-hour reserve, the watch boasts a translucent sapphire caseback and is water-resistant to 30m. It comes on a blue satin strap with an 18-diamond buckle. This exquisite timepiece is limited to 30 pieces, each individually engraved.
$POA, dior.com
Jaquet Droz Ophidian Hour
Jaquet Droz unveils its first watch without hands, the Ophidian Hour, ahead of Lunar New Year. Available in two versions, one with a mother-of-pearl dial and the other with a Sonora Sunrise dial, the watch features a serpent motif sculpted from five blocks of solid white gold. The snake, enameled in graduated colors and designed by John Howe, wraps around the dial. The 41mm red gold case displays time via rotating discs, with the hours by the snake’s head and minutes below. Each watch comes with a green rubber strap and exhibition caseback.
Priced from CHF 164,000, jaquet-droz.com
Jaeger-LeCoultre The Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Snake’
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s offering comes by way of a special Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Snake,’ showcasing the brand’s mastery in enameling and engraving. The limited-edition piece, the third in the maison’s Chinese Zodiac series, features a hand-engraved snake emerging from golden clouds, set against glossy black grand feu enamel. The snake’s body is delicately drawn with black rhodium, and the engraving alone takes 80 hours. The 45.5mm x 27.4mm 18k pink gold case houses JLC’s manually wound Caliber 822, offering a 42-hour power reserve. The watch comes on a black alligator leather strap and is water-resistant to 30m.
$POA, jaeger-lecoultre.com
Hublot The Spirit of Big Bang Year of the Snake
The Spirit of Big Bang gets a New Year makeover, as a limited edition of 88 pieces. This Hublot watch features a gold-plated, laser-engraved serpentine design that coils around the chronograph’s three counters. The black ceramic barrel-shaped case is paired with a unique rubber strap, embossed to mimic snake scales, and Hublot’s patented One-Click strap-changing mechanism. It is powered by the automatic skeleton caliber HUB4700 – a modernized version the first Swiss high-frequency integrated chronograph caliber ever made, the El Primero.
$35,100, hublot.com
G-Shock The GSTB400CX
Casio’s G-Shock celebrates the Year of the Snake with a limited-edition GSTB400CX from the G Steel collection. This chronograph features a durable stainless-steel band, a dual-coil motor that drives the rotating disc dial at the 9 o’clock position, and a shock-resistant carbon core guard. The solar-powered watch is water-resistant to 200 meters and boasts a sophisticated gold, black, and silver color palette, reflecting the Lunar New Year. Scale-like patterns are featured on the dial, buttons, and resin band, with a serpent engraving on the case back.
$380, g-shock.com
Franck Muller The Silhouette CX Snake Emerald
Franck Muller introduces the Silhouette CX Snake Emerald, an Asia Pacific-exclusive timepiece for the Year of the Snake. This bold evolution of the Curvex CX features an 18K gold case with asymmetrical curves, symbolizing the snake’s fluidity. The dial showcases a snake motif, hand-set with deep green emeralds using the intricate snow-setting technique. Powered by the FM2038 caliber movement with a 40-hour power reserve, the watch is completed by a green calf leather strap embossed with a snakeskin texture and is limited to only 28 pieces.
SGD$66,000, franckmuller-asiapacific.com
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Xiali Perpetual Calendar
Parmigiani Fleurier introduces the Tonda PF Xiali Chinese Calendar. This rose gold version builds on the success of the steel model and honors Chinese traditions with Swiss craftsmanship. The 42mm watch features a red dial depicting the Chinese calendar, with a moonphase indicator and a power reserve of 54 hours. The PF008 movement powers the calendar, and the watch is housed in polished 18K rose gold with a knurled bezel.
$104,300, parmigiani.com
Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac
Vacheron Constantin celebrates the Year of the Snake with a new Métiers d’Art series. Limited to 25 pieces in pink gold or platinum, these watches feature a cobra motif crafted in gold, showcasing the maison’s exquisite engraving and miniature enameling techniques. Powered by the in-house Caliber 2460 G4, the 40mm timepiece displays the hours, minutes, day, and date on four discs, offering a unique, hands-free movement. The dial is decorated with gradient Grand Feu enamel and delicate flora in a vibrant palette, paying tribute to the snake’s illustrious symbolism in Chinese culture.
£POA, vacheron-constantin.com
