Annual calendar years. An annual timepiece calendar is less complicated and expensive than a perpetual timepiece calendar, which will not require manual adjustment till 2100. That year will not be a leap year, even though its number is evenly divisible by 4. Ancient calendars (static) may always have been annual, even after the length of the calendar year was fixed at (avg.) 365.25 days by the Julian Calendar (46 BC). Early Romans observed an 8-day market week, called the nundinal cycle, until the seven-day week was adopted during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337). A goal of modern calendar reform
Chinese calendar year had 12 months, with a ten-day week intercalated in summer as needed to keep up with the tropical year. The 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches were used to mark days. A third version is the balanced calendar (). A year was 365.25 days, and a month was 29.5 days. After every 16th month, a half-month was intercalated. According to oracle bone records, the Shang dynasty calendar ( BC) was a balanced calendar with 12 to 14 months in a year; the month after the winter solstice was "Zhēngyuè". The first lunisolar calendar was the Zhou calendar (),