Tiger Watch

Each tiger watch in this collection gives the animal a place on the timepiece itself, engraved into a wooden dial or raised in relief across the lid of a pocket watch. The wooden models are pale, warm and light on the wrist, with the tiger drawn in engraved lines behind the hands. The pocket watches lean toward the antique, in bronze and silver tones, each on a chain and decorated with a scene that fills the whole case.

Wooden tiger watches with engraved dials

The wristwatches pair a wooden case with a wooden dial, and the tiger is engraved straight into the grain. On the Chinese Spirit Tiger Watch (Wood), a front-facing tiger head looks out from the middle of the dial, ringed by engraved hour marks and a thin black circle, and the strap carries on in segmented wooden links. It can be ordered on its own or with a box.

The Fearsome Tiger Watch (Wood) turns the tiger to the side and opens its jaws in a roar, a more dramatic drawing set off by a brown strap with stitched edges. The Unruffled Tiger Watch (Wood) is its calmer counterpart: a tiger face sketched in a few bold strokes, on a lighter tan strap with stitching and a silver-tone buckle. None of the wooden dials carries numerals: engraved marks around the edge stand in for the hours, which leaves the whole face to the tiger. All the wooden models share black hands and a silver-tone crown, and each comes in a single size.

Pocket watches with a tiger in relief

The pocket watches each hang from a chain. The Chinese Tiger Pocket Watch closes behind a bronze-tone lid that carries a full scene in relief: a tiger stands in the foreground and turns its head back over its shoulder to roar, blossoms trail across the top, and the Chinese character 虎, which means tiger, is raised beside it. Above the case, the bow that holds the chain is worked with scrolls and a small rosette. Another pocket watch in the collection cuts its lid away around a similar tiger, so the dial and its numerals show through behind the animal.

The Tiger and Dragon Pocket Watch is the most intricate design here. Its octagonal silver-tone case carries an openwork lid in which a dragon and a tiger wind through scrolling clouds, and the gaps reveal the gold-tone gears of the movement and a white dial with Roman numerals. It comes in silver or bronze tone.

Dragon and tiger, an ancient pairing

Setting a tiger opposite a dragon is far older than any watch. In Chinese tradition the two are opposites that complete each other: clouds are said to follow the dragon and wind to follow the tiger, the dragon belongs to the east and the tiger to the west, and in feng shui the Green Dragon and the White Tiger are believed to guard the left and right sides of a home. Our article on the place of the tiger in feng shui looks at that balance of yin and yang. Japanese painters took up the same pair, and dragon and tiger screens became a classic subject; our piece on why the tiger is so popular in Japan follows the animal through Japanese legend and art.

Wood on the wrist, bronze on a chain

The two kinds of watch suit different moments. The wooden wristwatches are made for every day: light, warm in tone and quiet in style, with the tiger in view each time the hour is checked. The pocket watches feel more ceremonial, drawn from a pocket on their chain to read the time, and their relief lids make them as much a small sculpture as a timepiece. Pocket watches were the usual way to carry the time until wristwatches took over in the early twentieth century, which is part of why they still carry the air of another era. Wood also brings a softer look than polished metal, and its grain varies slightly from one case to the next, so no two dials are quite identical.

A tiger watch as a gift

A watch with a tiger on it makes a present with a clear message. The Chinese Tiger Pocket Watch, with its character for tiger, suits anyone born in a Year of the Tiger, which comes around every twelve years in the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese Spirit model can be ordered with a box, ready to hand over, and the pocket watches, with their chains and detailed lids, have the look of a collector's piece.

More tigers for the wrist and hand

On the other wrist, or beside the watch on the same one, a bracelet carries the motif further: our tiger bracelet collection offers a tiger head sculpted in metal on a band of links and a gold-tone tiger head set between matte black beads. A tiger ring takes the animal to the hand in sculpted heads, claws and signets, and every piece, from pendants to earrings, is gathered in our tiger jewelry collection.

Watch details, briefly

Are the wooden watches wood all the way through?

The case and dial are wood on each model, and the Chinese Spirit Tiger Watch (Wood) adds a wooden link strap; the Fearsome and Unruffled models wear stitched straps instead.

Which watch carries the Chinese character for tiger?

The Chinese Tiger Pocket Watch. The character is raised on its lid, just beside the tiger turning back to roar.

Does the Tiger and Dragon Pocket Watch come in other colors?

Yes. Its options offer a silver tone or a bronze tone.