Some of the Best Limited Edition Watches of 2022 to Celebrate the Year of the Tiger, the Third Animal in the Chinese Zodiac
To understand the mad rush among the top luxury brands to create the best watches to celebrate the Chinese New Year (February 1, 2022), we must first understand the luxury watches market. The first 11 months of calendar 2021 (just before Omicron feared travel slowed down) has thrown up great numbers for the industry. The United States and China clearly drove the growth in luxury watch sales last year, with imports of CHF 2.8 billion (+55.7% versus 2020; +26.4% versus 2019) in the first 11 months of the year leading the way is on. ) of CHF 2.7 billion, mainland China has benefited from a rebound of luxury spending with restrictions on international travel (+31.0% versus 2020; +53.5% versus 2019).
No wonder, almost every marque luxury watchmaker has launched the ‘Year of the Tiger’ edition as a limited series. This includes TAG Heuer or even large-scale brands like Swatch, Casio and Gucci. This year Tiger is seen with the Water element, this combination is known to possess high self-esteem and the ability to learn, apart from the key traits of bravery and confidence. Through painstaking evaluation, we have chosen seven of the best ‘Year of the Tiger’ timepieces for both artistry and their personal expression of tantra.
Chopard – LUC XP Urushi Tiger of the Year
Chopard has a new watch every year to celebrate the Chinese zodiac calendar. This year, the LUC Collection welcomes the LUC XP Urushi Year of the Tiger timepiece, an 88-piece limited series. The artistic watch is housed in an ultra-thin rose gold case, with an internal LUC 96.17-L movement ticking inside. The Japanese urushi maki-e technique combines lacquer and gold dust. Master lacquer artist Minori Koizumi of the century-old company, Yamada Heiando, reportedly takes 160 hours to complete each dial. Note how gold flakes – placed between layers of lacquer – illuminate the background and the tiger stands out over a bay with its paws out and jaws sideways. Price: €22,900 approx
Jaeger-LeCoultre – The Reverso Tribute Enamel Tiger
Nine decades after Reverso’s birth (at the polo grounds in Rajasthan), comes Jagger-LeCoultre’s ‘Tiger’. Simultaneously with the opening of a major boutique in Shanghai, the new watch features the Fantastic Beast on the back, engraved in a pink gold case metal that appears to be leaping from a black opaque Grand Feu enamel background. To create the illusion of movement and power, Maison has used the polished surface of the tiger’s coat and a contrasting rhodium-brushed texture of its stripes to capture and refract light. Volume and depth courtesy is ‘modeled engraving’, a technique that uses chisels of varying sizes to carve metal in a stepwise manner. The elegant simplicity of the Reverso Tribute dial, with its vocal applause hour-markers and Chemin de Fer minute track, complements the case’s pink gold perfectly. Price: €90,000 approx
TAGS HEUER – Carrera Year of the Tiger
TAG Heuer interprets this zodiac sign by keeping the tiger away from the dial. Instead, the limited-edition watch flaunts the traditional in sporty Carrera models. The elegant dial on this piece—which can also be worn every day—marries a discreet, blue hue with the deep stripes featuring tiger fur. The light blue tiger stripes are made of horizontally brushed metal coated with a blue PVD treatment while the darker stripes are made of painted textured metal. A blue tiger leans to attack and adorns the sapphire crystal on the caseback of this watch, limited to 300 pieces. The watch comes in a 41mm steel case. Price: ₹3,10,250 approx
ULYSSE NARDIN – CLASSICO TIGER
Combining two centuries old enameling techniques, champlev And paulone, Classico “Tiger” is a display of artistry and commitment. champlev is a decorative technique that allows the voids on the surface to be subsequently filled with flaming glass materials, while paulone Enameling consists of small gold or silver leaves layered on a translucent enamel. When you are ready to gaze upon the majestic tiger, the fragility of the enamel dial is almost forgotten. The Rose Gold timepiece features a self-winding UN-815 movement. Limited to 88 pieces. Price: €44,000 approx
Piaget – Altiplano Chinese New Year Tiger
Piaget once again joins hands with master enameller, Anita Porchet, to create a watch in her Altiplano line, which features a fearless tiger in cloisonne grande faux enamel. This limited edition of 38 timepiece housed in a 38mm white gold case allows the Tiger to roar gracefully on the dial. Set with 78 brilliant-cut diamonds, it is powered by an in-house ultra-thin, manual-winding 430P movement. Cloisonne, a 4000-year-old decorative art, begins with the transfer of designs to the surface of a dial using gold ribbon to create miniature partitions, or cavities, in which enamel pigments are placed. The dial is then burned several times in a kiln and later varnished to bring life to the image. Price: $71,500 approx
JAQUET DROZ – Large Petit Heuer Minute Tiger Automaton
Jaquet Droz has released more than one model to celebrate the ‘Year of the Tiger’, but this one is the one with the black onyx and opal dial, with the tiger applique in red gold being the standout. The brand has dipped into its heritage of making automaton movements with a hand-wound mechanical automaton movement with a push-button triggering mechanism. It comes with an animation featuring a pond and carp. It takes 10 days to make 3D Tiger by skilled craftsmen. The technique used in this engraving, La Ronde Bose, allows a stunning full view of the tiger. This watch with 43mm red gold case comes with self-winding mechanical hours and minutes movement and impressive power reserve of 68 hours. Price: CHF 339,000 approx (automaton box included)
VACHERON CONSTANTIN – Métiers d’Art Legend of the Chinese Zodiac ‘Tiger of the Year’
When it comes to using a dial to express one’s creativity, nothing makes a better statement than the gorgeous Maison in Geneva. Vacheron Constantin first used the caliber 2460 G4 with four apertures on the dial – to jump hour, minute, day and date – with their first mask collection in 2007. The latest in its “Métiers d’Art Legend of the Chinese Zoccid” collection, comes in two editions, each limited to 12 pieces. One is in Platinum with a blue dial and the other in 18k 5N pink gold with a bronze-tone dial. The 18k gold dial is hand engraved and decorated with Grand Feu enamel in the traditional Chinese paper-cutting style called jianzhi, before being fixed in place of a hand-engraved tiger. Price: Around $140,000 for the 18k pink gold version
The author is the Chairman and Publisher of Chitralekha Group and Chairman of The Horologists.
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