Slithering Success: The Best Year of the Snake Watches for Chinese New Year 2025

On January 29, 2025, the Chinese New Year will usher in 12 months presided over by the snake – an auspicious creature of the Chinese Zodiac linked to wisdom, strategy and good fortune. A phobia for many, the snake is often thought of as a creature from nightmares – ready to dart with its venom-filled fangs bared. Historically, however, the snake has been a symbol of femininity, female power, rebirth, and creative potential. Clearly, there’s more to the snake than meets the eye. To celebrate the return of the serpent, let’s take a look at the feats of horology that world-leading brands have brought to life, including Year of the Snake watches by Dior, Hublot, Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston and many more.

Legend has it that Queen Cleopatra of Egypt chose to end her life by encouraging a bite from a venomous snake. Although historians have since argued about the veracity of this claim, there’s no denying that women and snakes are interwoven, both positively and negatively, throughout mythology. Just think of Medusa – the pantomime villain of ancient Greeks – who was cursed to live with snakes for hair. Fortunately, there’s no inkling of this creepy heritage in the Dior Grand Soir Year of the Snake watch, which instead draws upon the positive attributes of the wood snake in the Chinese lunar calendar, including charm, elegance, intelligence and refined tastes to name a few. Delicate pink mother of pearl provides the backdrop for a floral scene, which is constructed using mother of pearl petals, hand-painted leaves and golden butterflies. Amid this chaos, a snake with rose gold scales continues its path, subtly blending into the background. The finishing touches to this limited edition piece include a diamond-set bezel and a midnight blue strap, upping the femininity even further.

A more playful approach can be witnessed in the Harry Winston Chinese New Year Automatic 36mm, presented as two limited edition models. The first, in 18k rose gold, features a lacquered snake atop light green mother of pearl, adorned with marquise-cut green sapphires, emeralds, and spessartite garnets. The alternative version in 18k white gold boasts a deep blue mother-of-pearl background, a lacquered snake, marquise-cut diamonds and emeralds. Both Year of the Snake timepieces have an emerald-cut diamond at the 12 o’clock position – a signature of Harry Winston – and a double row of diamonds on the bezel.

Next, let’s turn our attention towards the more masculine end of the spectrum, which celebrates the snake as a creature of mystery. The Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Year of the Snake watch contrasts reptilian textured black ceramic with a three-dimensional golden snake that wraps around the open dial and its trio of apertures. Beneath the dial, this 88-piece offering is constructed around a HUB4700 Self-winding Skeleton Chronograph movement with a 50-hour power reserve.

Continuing with the darker palette, the sleek Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel Snake watch is everything you’d expect from the heritage Swiss brand. Upon first glance, this is a neat, rectangular-shaped dress watch, complete with a black dial and matching alligator strap. However, when flipped into its reverse-facing position, a hand-engraved snake emerges from a wreath of golden clouds set against a background of glossy black Grand Feu enamel. The fine details of the snake’s scales are hand-drawn with black rhodium, which contrasts with the sandblasted texture of the clouds and the warm pink gold of the case.

Swapping black for midnight blue, the Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 41.5 Year of the Snake watch is limited to just eight pieces in red gold. It features a beautiful rendering of the moon sweeping across the night sky (in mother-of-pearl and blue aventurine glass, respectively) with overlaid Super-LumiNova for its glow-in-the-dark properties. A golden snake is seen coiled around a branch of cherry blossom at the base of the dial, seemingly protecting the sophisticated in-house calibre A&S1512 movement housed within.

Another highlight emerges from the house of Vacheron Constantin, this time two variations of a Year of the Snake timepiece under the Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac umbrella. Available in yellow gold with a brown leather strap or platinum with a blue leather strap, the shared dial design features an engraved coiled snake on a hand-painted enamel boulder, perhaps basking in the sun’s rays. Another thing you’ll notice about this watch is that it has no hands. The day, date, hour and minutes are shown in four apertures around the edge of the dial, all thanks to the clever construction of the in-house calibre 2460 G4.

Now, let’s talk trends! Deep red and burgundy are having a moment, with the IWC Portofino Automatic Moon Phase Year of the Snake watch and the Panerai Luminor Perpetual Calendar PAM01688 both celebrating Chinese heritage through this colour palette. However, the big star of the Snake season must be green – whether deep and forest-like or vibrant. Perpetually stylish Louis Vuitton demonstrates the aesthetic perfectly with the Louis Vuitton Escale ‘Snakes Jungle’ Cabinet of Wonders watch. On the dial, a serpent in shades of blue and green emerges from a bamboo forest and rears its head, ready to devour an orb of gold and nephrite jade. The backdrop is composed of 367 individual pieces of wood, parchment and straw that are carefully assembled using marquetry techniques. Further methodologies used in the construction of this watch include micro-sculpture, engraving and champlevé enamelling to create dimension and depth.

Green is the colour of choice in the limited edition Blancpain Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel 2025 watch, which offers a way to track the Gregorian calendar and the Chinese calendar. It’s also the dominant shade in the eight-piece limited edition Breguet Classique 7145 Lunar New Year 2025 watch in 18k rose gold. On the dial, guilloché and hand-engraved gold (sculpted with chisels and burins) give the snake an artistic, stained glass appeal, especially when combined with deep green leaves and a black finish to accentuate the bas-relief elements.

Finally, in the green family, there’s the Jaquet Droz Ophidian Hour watch that uses the curving body of the snake and not traditional hands to tell the time. Sculpted from five blocks of solid white gold, the snake is enamelled on all sides and rises so far off the dial’s surface that it rests on the surrounding sapphire crystal glass. There are two versions: one with a green enamelled snake on a hand-painted mother-of-pearl slice complemented with a bright green strap, and a second with a red enamelled snake on a Mexican mineral known as Sonora Sunrise (chrysocolla cuprite) with a forest green strap. When it’s on the wrist, the snake’s head signals the hour, and the tip of the tail signposts the minutes.

Last but not least, when you’ve purchased your limited edition Year of the Snake timepiece, you’re going to need a nifty storage solution! The WOLF Year of the Snake Triple Watch Roll is embroidered inside and out with a rather vicious-looking serpent, its red eyes reflected in the choice of super-soft suede interior. A hidden compartment in the roll itself can also be used to store a small selection of fine jewels, making this an ideal travel companion.

This selection of Year of the Snake timepieces is a luxurious way to celebrate the arrival of a new year in the Chinese lunar calendar. Even if you are not a believer, I’m sure you can agree that an impressive array of watchmaking skills are on display here, transforming the snake into something precious and showcasing its slithering body in a fabulous array of guises. Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful year ahead, infused with all the intelligence and refinement of the wood snake.