New York (December 18, 2023) – The year of the Wooden Dragon starts on 10 February 2024. The dragon in this element is a harbinger of calm determination; the creature’s natural ardour is tempered by the wood. A year of questioning and control, it is also all about negotiation and generosity. These attributes coalesce to make this an eagerly awaited year, duly celebrated by Arnold & Son with the launch of two limited editions: the Perpetual Moon 41.5 Red Gold “Year of the Dragon” and “Luna Magna Red Gold “Year of the Dragon.”
LUNA MAGNA RED GOLD “YEAR OF THE DRAGON”
Arnold & Son is marking 2024, an auspicious and untroubled year in the traditional Chinese calendar, with a majestic dragon and the artistic crafts. Fine watchmaking, miniature sculpture, and gemstone craftsmanship make up the two versions of Luna Magna Red Gold “Year of the Dragon.” This limited edition comprising eight pieces features an encounter between a dragon and the moon.
RESONANCE OF THE GEMS
In the inimitable tradition of decorative horology to which Arnold & Son is deeply attached, this year is dedicated to a “Chinese Zodiac” limited edition in the Luna Magna collection. Two versions are available, each with eight pieces produced, featuring a large moon composed of red gold (5N) and pietersite or onyx, face to face with an impressive dragon in the same gold.
The large dial on which the dragon has landed is in fact a wide disc in the same stone as the three-dimensional moon, namely pietersite or onyx. The first is blue with veining, and the second smooth, glossy and black. The off-centre dial showing the hours and minutes is in white opal, a signature Arnold & Son gemstone.
CAMBERED DRAGON
Sculpted from red gold (5N), just like the case that encloses it, the dragon is hand-engraved. It transforms the watch into an objet d’art. The powerful body of the mythical creature coils around the dial to its head, reflected in the large moon.
With scales, claws, whiskers and horns, this Asian-style dragon turns its full attention to the three-dimensional globe that shows the phases of the moon on the Luna Magna Red Gold “Year of the Dragon.” The sphere has a double meaning here. It stands both for the moon, the cycles of which direct the Chinese calendar, and for the pearl of wisdom that, according to legend, is inseparable from the dragon, who ceaselessly attempts to catch it. With a final allusion to the Middle Kingdom, the lining of the straps is crafted from red alligator leather.
MECHANICAL EXCELLENCE
Luna Magna Red Gold “Year of the Dragon” is powered by the A&S1021 calibre, entirely developed, produced, assembled, and adjusted at the manufacture. This manually wound calibre, designed around the lunar globe, offers a 90-hour power reserve and a regulating organ oscillating at a frequency of 3 Hz. On the case back, the movement provides a secondary display of the moon’s age, with very legible graduations that allow extremely precise adjustment of the lunar globe.
The sophistication of this celestial mechanism is also evident in its strict astronomical accuracy. The total duration of a lunar cycle is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.8 seconds. Arnold & Son has approached this so closely that it would take 122 years to build up a 24-hour discrepancy between the display and astronomical reality. The disparity would be easy to correct since the moon function on the Luna Magna Red Gold “Year of the Dragon” is accessible directly via the crown. This practicality is only possible through Arnold & Son’s absolute mastery of the watchmaking process.
PERPETUAL MOON 41.5 RED GOLD “YEAR OF THE DRAGON”
According to the traditional Chinese calendar, 2024 is a prosperous and harmonious year. Arnold & Son marks the auspicious occasion with a sculptural flying dragon on a dial where the artistic crafts converge. Fine watchmaking, sculpture and miniature painting compose the two versions of Perpetual Moon 41.5 Red Gold “Year of the Dragon”. This limited edition comprising eight pieces features an encounter between a rose gold dragon and a mother-of-pearl moon.
ILLUMINATION
In the inimitable tradition of decorative horology important to Arnold & Son, this year is dedicated to a new “Chinese Zodiac” limited edition in the Perpetual Moon collection. There are two versions, each with eight pieces produced, with a large, panoramic moon illuminating a nocturnal garden setting and a sinuous rose gold (4N) dragon.
The backdrop to this scene is made from aventurine. Black or blue, the glass sparkling with metallic powder gives it a star-studded air. This is a calm union, in line with the subtleties of the Wooden Dragon. In the background stand a few stone pines with gnarled branches evoking the dragon’s shape.
UNDULATION
This dragon, positioned with its profile against the aventurine glass, is a supremely delicate sculpture with countless hand-crafted details. With powerful feet, dissuasive claws, open maw, and whiskers flowing in the wind, this majestic creature drifts between two worlds. Depicted realistically with hand-painted shadows, the large, mother-of-pearl moon is overlaid with Super-LumiNova. It is placed against an aventurine glass sky and surrounded by the constellations of the Great Bear and Cassiopeia, which are also hand-painted and overlaid with luminescent material.
The choice of these star patterns is a direct allusion to the history of marine chronometer-maker John Arnold. They have served as guiding lights since the dawn of time. In the middle distance lies the pole star, which unerringly indicates the north. Here, the importance of stars in determining periods, thresholds and symbols in the Chinese zodiac calendar constitutes a unique point of cultural and graphic convergence.
MECHANICAL EXCELLENCE
On the case back, a secondary display of the phases of the moon allows fast and accurate adjustment of the moon age. The manually wound A&S1512 calibre that powers the Perpetual Moon 41.5 Red Gold “Year of the Dragon” can track the phases of the moon with exceptional accuracy. The total duration of a lunar cycle is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.8 seconds. Arnold & Son has approached this so closely that it would take 122 years for this movement, if constantly wound up, to accumulate a 24-hour discrepancy between the display and astronomical reality.
Like all Arnold & Son’s movements, the A&S1512 calibre was entirely developed, produced, decorated, assembled, adjusted, and finished at the manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds. This calibre uses a double barrel with an oscillation frequency of 3 Hz, giving a 90-hour power reserve.
The Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 41.5 Red Gold “Year of the Dragon” and Luna Magna Red Gold “Year of the Dragon” are issued in two colorways – blue and black, with each colorway limited to just eight pieces each. In total, only 32 of these magnificent dragon-inspired timepieces will be available for collectors worldwide.
ABOUT ARNOLD & SON
Arnold & Son is named after John Arnold, a renowned English watchmaker of the 18th century. The golden age of maritime explorations and discoveries ushered this precision into a new technical ideal – determining longitude at sea. Its immediate corollary was the identification of local time, which changed constantly as the observer moved along an east-west axis. Astronomy, chronometry, and what we now call world time are thus inextricably linked within one and the same question, to which John Arnold and his son devoted their lives, their art, and their genius.
This is how these three dimensions – Astronomy, Chronometry and World Time – have come to be embodied in the House’s contemporary timepieces. Echoes of John Arnold’s inventions and preoccupations, these principles represent the foundations on which the Arnold & Son collections are based. The twenty-plus calibers presented to date by Arnold & Son have all been designed and developed in-house and produced by its sister manufacturer, La Joux-Perret in La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland). This independence and creativity demonstrate the House’s ability to perpetuate John Arnold’s exceptional inventions.
For more information, visit arnoldandson.com.
