The Zodiac Circle Chinese Zodiac Necklace

The cycle is a way of counting before it is anything else. Chinese timekeeping used a twelve-part count — the earthly branches — for years, for months, and for the double hours of the day, and each branch carries an animal.

The oldest surviving lists of animals against the branches are on bamboo and wooden slips buried in the third century BC, and they do not quite match the set we use. By the first century AD, in Wang Chong's Lunheng, the twelve are exactly the twelve below, and they have not moved since.

There is a well-known tale about a race across a river that settled the order, in which the rat rides over on the ox and jumps off at the bank. That is a story told about the cycle rather than the reason for it, and it is worth telling anyway.

The one thing worth getting right

The zodiac year does not begin on 1 January. It begins at Chinese New Year, which moves with the moon and falls somewhere between 21 January and 20 February. If you were born in January or the first half of February, your animal is very likely the one before yours on the list. Check the date of Chinese New Year for your birth year before you choose — we send the one you picked.

2026 is a Horse year, from 17 February. It is a fire horse year, which comes round once in sixty: the last was 1966 and the next is 2086.

The twelve

Each one below is the branch, its double hour, its fixed element, and the stone set into that pendant.

• Rat — Zi 子, 23:00–01:00, water. Natural African opal. First in the cycle; carried for quickness and for starting.
• Ox — Chou 丑, 01:00–03:00, earth. Natural African opal. Carried for patience, and for work that takes as long as it takes.
• Tiger — Yin 寅, 03:00–05:00, wood. Natural African opal. The first month of the lunar year. Carried for nerve.
• Rabbit — Mao 卯, 05:00–07:00, wood. Natural African opal. Carried for soft strength, and for getting through a change.
• Dragon — Chen 辰, 07:00–09:00, earth. Natural African opal. The only one of the twelve nobody has ever seen.
• Snake — Si 巳, 09:00–11:00, fire. Natural Swiss blue topaz. The animal that leaves a version of itself behind, on schedule.
• Horse — Wu 午, 11:00–13:00, fire. Natural African opal. The branch that holds noon. Carried for direction.
• Goat — Wei 未, 13:00–15:00, earth. Natural African opal with chrome diopside. Carried for quiet resistance.
• Monkey — Shen 申, 15:00–17:00, metal. Natural African opal. Carried for a quick mind.
• Rooster — You 酉, 17:00–19:00, metal. Natural amethyst. The one that announces the day before you can see it.
• Dog — Xu 戌, 19:00–21:00, earth. Natural garnet. Carried for trust, and for knowing where the line is.
• Pig — Hai 亥, 21:00–23:00, water. Natural African opal. Last in the cycle. Carried for plenty, and for taking it.

What you are buying

• Solid 925 sterling silver. Gold plating on the animal and the mount, with blackened or rhodium finishes on the frame depending on the sign
• One natural stone per pendant, listed above
• White cubic zirconia accent stones — laboratory-made, not mined
• Pendant roughly 25 mm across, on a box chain
• Free UK delivery · 5–10 days

Plating is a surface finish and it wears with time; the silver beneath it does not. We never plate base metal.

The same price whichever sign you choose.

Carried as a mark of when you started. Some people feel something when they put one on. Some don't. Either way it is an old idea, and it is accurately made.