Mario C 
As is custom with almost all watch brands, Blancpain has decided to kick off the slew of new Year of the Snake releases with an incredibly complex limited edition.
Happy New Year! Well, for us Westerners, perhaps, but that doesn’t mean we can’t ring in the upcoming Year of the Snake just a little bit early. Blancpain seems to have had the same sentiment, too! For 2025, the Paudex/Le Brassus brand have decided to prematurely celebrate the Chinese New Year in style with a new Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel.
To all you Blancpain dissidents out there: Yes, there is more to their roster than just the Fifty Fathoms! Don’t get me wrong, the Fifty Fathoms is great, but as far as dress watches go, the Villeret is incredibly underrated. Named after the small town where Jehan-Jacques Blancpain founded his eponymous brand, the Villeret is the epitome of understatement and elegance.
Introduced as a flagship watch of Blancpain’s in the 1980s, the Villeret has worn many hats over the years, sporting over 200 subtypes and carrying complications out of the horological wazoo. Want a tourbillon? That can be arranged. Want a retrograde function too? As well as a jump hour? Done! However, one of their most significant evolutions in the Villeret lineup would come in the form of the Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel in 2012.
Where the timepiece differs from most calendar-type watches is in its execution. With the steep price tag of AU$140,000 you would be wise to think that the Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel is a perpetual calendar of sorts – but it’s not. Instead, this Villeret’s complexity goes far beyond just keeping the leap years in check, as it combines both the Gregorian and Chinese calendar systems into one spectacular package!
While the Gregorian calendar (our Western calendar) relies on the passing of Solar days, the Chinese calendar is Lunisolar. Put simply, the Chinese calendar’s month relies on the 29/30-day phases of the Moon, and also adds on an additional month every few years to account for the Earth’s rotation around the Sun. This helps to keep the traditional holidays consistent, as Chinese New Year always happens close to springtime. But let’s explain…
The top subdial is the Chinese hours, which are 120 minutes in length with a window above this for the current zodiacal year. The dial at 3 o’clock showcases the 5 elements and 10 celestial stem elements of the 60-year cycle of the elements associated with Chinese mythology, along with the Yin and Yang symbol.
The dial at 9 o’clock indicates the Chinese days of the month on the outer part of the dial, indicated by the longer of the two hands, and the smaller hand pointing to the symbols on the inner track indicates the Chinese months, with a leap month indicator at the very top in a small circular window.
In the 6 o’clock position, an astronomical moonphase window showcases the current phases of the moon, and around the outer track of the dial, the Gregorian date is indicated via a traditional serpentine hand. White gold applied Roman numerals adorn the dial, making reading the time fairly easy due to the contrasting white gold on green.
Combining two different calendars from opposite ends of the world is certainly not an easy feat. That’s probably why Blancpain required five years’ worth of R&D to get it exactly right! The Cal. 3638 was the result, bringing with it automatic winding and a monstrous 168-hour power reserve. Another defining feature of the Blancpain’s movement is that, despite its gigantic 45.2mm case diameter, is its ease of use. The Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel forgoes the hidden pushers inside the case, opting for a more accessible under-lug adjustment for all the calendar’s features.
While the watch does sound extremely complex, the Villeret collection’s aesthetic is more than capable of adding some much-needed restraint to such a horological powerhouse. The broad timepiece is densely packed in the finest platinum, with a white gold automatic rotor bearing a relief engraving of a snake alongside the Chinese characters for ‘Wood’ and ‘Snake.’ On the front of the dial is the Villeret’s classic calendar layout, complete with Hanzi (汉字) writing for each sub-dial. Keeping in theme with the merging of Western and Eastern tradition, the outer date wheel remains in Arabic numerals, and the Roman numeral indexes also stay in place. The whole design is completed atop a spectacular dial finished with green grand feu (great fire) enamelling, and even has twos cutout: One for the moonphase, and another that displays all twelve Chinese Zodiac animals!
My Thoughts
If you’re new to watches, then I completely understand if you’ve gotten completely lost in reading this. Don’t worry, you weren’t the only one – The Chinese calendar business confused me massively at first, but eventually I got the hang of it. To an extent, it might actually even be more efficient than the Gregorian one!
Honestly, I had never been a massive fan of Blancpain’s Villeret lineup, as their focus always seemed to be fixated on the Fifty Fathoms. It’s understandable, given the history, but sometimes it feels like Blancpain is content on remaining a one-trick pony. However, the Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel is more evidence to the contrary than I would ever need, and I’m honestly glad to be proven wrong – something that always seems to occur to me in the watch world!
The under-lug calendar adjustment system is nothing short of genius. I mean, complete calendars – let alone Chinese/Gregorian mergers – are rarely that simple to adjust, but the under-lug system just makes so much sense to me. Honestly, I’m surprised that scant few are seeking ways to improve the convenience of owning such complex timepieces. I suppose, then, that I’m pleased to see what Blancpain has provided here, and the Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel is certainly one hell of a way to ring in the new year.
Reference: 0888-3432C-55B
Specifications:
- Dimensions: 45.2 mm case diameter x 15.1mm thickness
- Case Material: Platinum
- Dial: Green grand feu enamel
- Movement: Automatic Cal. 3638 with Traditional Chinese Lunisolar Calendar
- Power Reserve: 168h
- Water Resistance: 30m (3bar)
- Strap: Brown alligator with platinum pin buckle
