An ongoing run of Lunar New Year editions, one animal at a time — Tiger (2022), Dragon (2023), Snake (2024, for the 2025 New Year), and Horse (2025, for the 2026 New Year). All four share the same unusual sequence: the case-back is painted with black enamel first, leaving the animal’s silhouette bare, then fired and polished to a glassy finish before a master engraver works the reserved area in low relief using modelled engraving — roughly 55 to 80 hours per watch, entirely by hand, on a surface that can’t be repaired if the enamel chips. Every piece pairs the engraved back with a matching black grand feu enamel dial, so the animal is the only thing on the watch that isn’t glass-smooth.
Sources: SJX — Tiger · SJX — Dragon · JLC Press — Snake · JLC Press — Horse
Click any piece to turn it over
A first for Jaeger-LeCoultre in recent memory: figurative engraving combined with enamel on the same surface. The tiger leaps from black clouds, its stripes picked out afterward in black lacquer; 55 hours of engraving on a caseback already coated in fired enamel. Made to order rather than numbered, roughly €90,000 before tax at launch.
A dragon coiled in clouds against the same stark black ground, its scales finished in black rhodium once the engraving is complete. Ten gravers, up to 80 hours of work — longer than the Tiger a year earlier. Made to order, roughly US$107,000 before tax at launch.
A snake emerging from a wreath of golden clouds, its scales hand-drawn in black rhodium against sandblasted cloud texture for contrast. Ten chisels, 80 hours of modelled engraving on the pre-enamelled back; getting the black grand feu right took five or six enamel layers and 24 hours of firing and cooling alone — 16 for the back, 8 for the dial — before half a day of polishing. Made to order, presented for the 2025 Lunar New Year.
The fourth in the series, and the first limited to a fixed edition of 10 rather than made to order. A horse’s head and forelegs appear to leap from sand-blasted golden clouds, mane and muzzle drawn in black rhodium for contrast; the engraver used ten differently sized chisels and modelled engraving — sculpting for depth rather than flat outline — across 80 hours of work on the enamelled back. Presented ahead of the Lunar New Year at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Dream Shaper exhibition in Shanghai, September 2025.