CIGA Design Carved Its First Automaton Into a Slab of Real Everest Bedrock

There are plenty of Everest watches out there, but most of them honor whoever is standing on top. Rolex’s iconic1953 expedition is the perfect example, and CIGA design’s own Everest Summit tourbillon, which we covered back in February, tipped its cap to Hillary and Norgay as well.

But this particular watch picks a different hero. Instead, it’s built around the 1960 Chinese North Ridge climb, and specifically the man who gave up his own shot at the top so three teammates could keep going. It also happens to be the brand’s first automaton, the CIGA design Everest China 65th Anniversary.

Four Men, One Ledge, Two Shows a Day

As the story goes, back on May 24, 1960, a Chinese rope team stalled at the Second Step. It was a sheer rock band near 8,700 meters that had turned back everyone since Mallory. Liu Lianman, a firefighter by trade, took four cracks at it and came off every time. So he crouched on the ledge and decided to let his teammates climb over him instead.

And the reason was simple – that was all he had left in the tank. Liu stayed behind near 8,700 meters, left his remaining oxygen with a note for their descent, and the other three tagged the summit at 4:20 the next morning. Unable to continue Liu helped his teammates, while giving up his own chance to reach the summit.

That’s the exact scene CNC-carved onto this dial, and it even moves. At noon and midnight the lone climbing figure works his way to the top, then resets within five minutes for the next run. Driving it is CIGA’s in-house CD-10 automatic, 21 jewels and 42 hours of reserve, engineered specifically to power the automaton.

Rock, Titanium, and a Route Map

Automata are normally Jaquet Droz territory, where the moving-figure stuff starts well north of $75,000. So the fact that CIGA still went and cut the dial from actual Everest bedrock, gathered by hand at the base of the mountain and worked for over a month until every slab reads differently, is nothing short of impressive. A lumed 65th relief sits up top, with ice-axe hands (red for minutes) sweeping across it.

The 45mm Grade 5 titanium case skips dial markers entirely, and the notched bezel handles that duty. Around the exhibition caseback, Liu’s words from the ledge are engraved, the gist being, “keep going, step on my shoulders.”

Even the fluororubber strap earns its spot in the overall package, with the North Ridge route embossed camp by camp from 5,200 meters up to the 8,848.86-meter summit. And in May 2025, a mountaineer friend of the brand carried a one-off version of this watch up that exact route.

Spec Sheet

Pricing & Availability

The Everest China 65th Anniversary lands on CIGA design’s website September 1 at $1,699. The brand hasn’t published an edition size, but with every dial requiring a month of stonework, we don’t expect these to sit around for long.

Recap

CIGA design Everest China 65th Anniversary Automaton Watch

CIGA design’s first automaton puts the 1960 human ladder on a slab of real Everest rock and sends the climber to the summit twice a day.

Learn More: CIGA design