February 18, 2018, marks the start of the new year on the traditional Chinese calendar, this one designated the Year of the Dog, the 11th animal sign in the Chinese zodiac. As in past years, a handful of luxury watch companies are celebrating ? and reaching out to affluent Asian collectors ? with limited-edition timepieces prominently featuring this year’s animal on their artistically ambitious dials. Here are five we discovered.
Blancpain offers a new limited-edition of its Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar ? first introduced in 2012, the Year of the Dragon ? whose intriguing array of complications includes signs of the Zodiac, indications of the five elements and celestial stems, and leap months, along with Gregorian calendar indications and moon-phases (Click here for a detailed description of the watch and its many functions). The 2018 version features a 45-mm case made of platinum, a white grand feu enamel dial with white-gold appliqués, hollowed-leaf-style hour and minute hands and blued serpentine date pointer hands, and all of the model’s distinctive indicators topped off by the 12 o’clock aperture displaying the year’s Zodiac sign ? which will, of course, be a dog throughout the coming year. Inside the watch is Blancpain’s automatic Caliber 3638, boasting a seven-day power reserve in addition to its array of Gregorian and Chinese calendar functions. Visible through a sapphire caseback, it features a sculpted gold rotor with an e...