This year, once again, several watchmakers are honouring Chinese astrology with limited editions that celebrate the artistic crafts. The Yin Fire Rooster, the tenth animal in the Chinese zodiac, is brave, determined and honest. For watchmakers, this divine messenger also has particular significance, as he tells the time by crowing at sunrise every day.
Jaquet Droz – Petite Heure Minute Rooster and Petite Heure Minute Relief Rooster
Jaquet Droz has longstanding ties with China, where it was one of the first watchmakers to offer its inventions back in the 18th century. The company’s annual creations based on the Chinese zodiac, a potent symbol of this relationship, go back several years. Most of them are in the Petite Heure Minute collection.
These year sees two new models devoted to the rooster, each in two versions. The two Petite Minute Roosters in red gold, with a diameter of 39 mm, or 35 mm for the version set with 232 diamonds (each in a limited edition of 28), have an ivory grand feu enamel dial decorated with a naturalistic miniature painting. The colours are muted, with the exception of the cockerel’s red comb, echoed by two peonies. The self-winding calibre Jaquet Droz 2653.P also celebrates the rooster with an engraving on the rose-gold rotor. The two Petite Heure Minute Relief models, in rose gold (limited edition of 28) and white gold set with diamonds (series of 8) pay tribute to China’s favourite stone, jade, with the art of sculpture. The dial with inlaid jadeite and engraved white mother-of-pearl represents a painted landscape dominated by a rooster jauntily announcing daybreak, in rose gold, or (for the diamond-set version) white gold with hand-painted red and blue plumage.
Opposite the GMT globe on the left side of this Bovet Recital 18 Shooting Star’s dial is a moon phase indicator, also offered on a dome-style screen. Here, we’ve got a “dual moon phase” that is really only a mirror representation of this moon given its comparative period as seen from the northern or southern hemisphere. Bovet utilizes a moon phase indicator system that is accurate to approximately 122 years before it demands adjustment – but I really doubt anyone will have this or any other mechanical watch working continuously for 122 decades. Yet again, you see usage of this very cool tiny ruby wheels utilized to ensure that the dome turns with nominal friction.At the cover of the dial is the indicator for the time using an included power reserve indicator. Bovet obviously designed the dial of the Bovet Recital 18 Shooting Star to possess four “hemispherical” quadrants comprising the four round areas which are the GMT globe, moon phase indicator, tourbillon, and upper display for the moment. This latter section includes complications as well like the retrograde display for the minutes along with the jumping hour index. As far as “odd” screens for the time go, this is actually decently legible and, of course, a workout in complication for complication’s sake. In other words, after all, why you could spend a few hundred hundreds of dollars on a mechanical watch, right?Dial and motion, as stated above, are more or less merged into a single and the result is (at least in my view) a glorious combination of mechanical and artistic design. Not only is the design of this in-house made Bovet quality 17DM01-HU movement aesthetically interesting, but it offers the viewer so much to check at in terms of how the mechanism operates. In addition to that, there is a lot of hand-decoration as well as engraving to enjoy. Turn over the watch, and most of the rear of this Bovet Recital 18 Shooting Star is filled with hand-engraved stars and other “perspectives from space.”
Vacheron Constantin – Métiers d’Art Legend of the Chinese Zodiac
Vacheron Constantin is another watchmaker that can boast of historic ties to the Middle Kingdom – since 1845, to be exact. It has a specific collection dedicated to the Chinese zodiac – Legend of the Chinese Zodiac – which uses calibre 2460 G4, an automatic movement that tells the time without the benefit of hands, using four small windows to display the dragging hours and minutes, and jumping day and date, while leaving as much space as possible on the dial for an artistic representation of the animal of the year. The cockerel for 2017 is hand-engraved and positioned in the centre of the grand feu enamel dial, which is decorated with 18-carat gold foliage, creating a subtle three-dimensional effect. The 40 mm watch comes in a limited edition of 12 in rose gold and brown, and 12 in platinum and blue.
Chopard – L.U.C XP Urushi – Year of the rooster
Chopard also celebrates 28 January each year with a new ultra-thin model in the L.U.C XP Urushi Chinese Zodiac collection, featuring a lacquered dial. The lacquer, which is obtained from the resin of the urushi tree, is enhanced with thousands of minute particles of mother-of-pearl, giving the dial a subtle iridescence. The dials, made in Japan by an urushi grand master, feature a splendid crowing cockerel braced on two golden feet, with the rising sun to the right, and eight lucky red gladioli. The plumage of the Yin Fire Rooster, which is delicately carved onto its body, explodes with vivid shades of turquoise on the long and majestic feathers in its tail. Inside the 18-carat rose gold case, the self-winding L.U.C 96.17-L calibre uses twin barrels to provide a 65-hour power reserve. The watch is produced in a limited edition of 88.
Panerai – Luminor 1950 Sealand 3 Days Automatic Acciaio 44mm
There is nothing in the name to suggest that this model is dedicated to the Year of the Rooster, apart from the fact that Panerai uses the Luminor Sealand collection, with its protective cover, for special limited editions. The ninth timepiece in a series devoted to the Chinese zodiac, this 99-piece limited edition pays homage to an ancient Italian engraving technique that takes its name from the tool used to produce it: the “sparsello”. Gold wires are inserted into grooves carved into the steel cover of the watch to create the design of the cockerel with puffed-out chest, surrounded by floral garlands. Inside the watch is the automatic P.9000 movement, which drives the hours, minutes, a small second register and date.
Ulysse Nardin – Classico Rooster
Over at Ulysse Nardin, it’s the Classico collection that traditionally welcomes the specially designed Chinese zodiac pieces. The 88 Classico Rooster watches in rose gold honour the animal of the year with champlevé enamel. The cockerel, larger than life and captured in a realistic pose, confidently occupies the entire centre of the brown dial, against which the deep blue of its plumage, the white of its neck and head and the red of its comb provide a bold contrast. The rooster is outlined with lively dashes of gold, which deftly convey the energy of the bird. The COSC-certified automatic UN-15 movement drives the hour, minute and second hands that rotate from the centre of the dial.
Bovet 1822 – Amadeo Fleurier Monsieur Bovet
Bovet has chosen one of its convertible Amadeo models for its understated yet colourful miniature painting depiction of the rooster on a luminous white mother-of-pearl background, which fills the dial. On the back, the off-centre white lacquer dial shows the unusual design of the in-house Virtuoso II calibre with its inversed hands and double co-axial seconds.
