6 Most Elegant IWC Portugieser Watches
By James Njau
American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones woke up one day with a dream of opening a watch company in Switzerland. This soon led to the birth of the International Watch Company (IWC).
It didn’t come easy for the young watchmaker. Jones was met with a lot of disapproval and rejection when he first attempted to put up a factory in Switzerland. Not one to give up easily, he sought another place to establish his watchmaking workshop in the small town of Schaffhausen.
Schaffhausen had enough renting space and is in its latest attempt to industrialise the town got its first hydroelectric power plant. Most people in this town made watches from their homes, meaning Jones had potential talented workers. And we all know Swiss watchmakers are the best in the industry.
A Dream And A Plan
Armed with a dream and a plan, Jones rented a few shops, and he produced the first luxury watches from his company. He came up with six watch family names to give his collections such that every family had its own distinct characteristics. These included the Pilot’s Watches, Portugieser, Ingenieur, Aquatimer, Da Vinci, and Portofino.
The aforementioned watch families have been perfected all throughout the 150 years the company has been in existence. Every watch that has come out of the IWC workshop has combined the artistry of modern American design with Swiss precision. Thus, IWC has gained fame and recognition from affluent watch lovers, and now everyone wants a piece from Jones’ famous collections.
The IWC Portugieser
In this article, you will get to learn about one of IWC’s bestselling collections called the IWC Portugieser. With this collection, Jones created complex watches with seemingly simple designs. They came with a big dial featuring Arabic numerals and complications as well. To date, their huge dials with simple designs are one of Potugieser’s main selling points.
Below are a few of the most elegant pieces from the IWC Portugieser Collection.
IWC Portugieser Chronograph Automatic
The IWC Portugieser Chronograph Automatic is one of the most popular pieces in the collection. In fact, it has been enchanting watch lovers since 1998 when it was first introduced. This watch comes with a navy blue dial with a black alligator leather strap and a 40.9mm stainless steel case, thereby giving it an elegant yet masculine touch.
The blue dial displays the chronograph function with minutes and seconds, and silver hands as well as Arabic numeral hour markers. Driven by an automatic self-winding Calibre 79350 movement, this watch has a 44-hour power backup and 30m water resistance.
IWC Portugieser Manual-Winding
Like other watches, the IWC Portugieser Manual-winding Watch comes with a black alligator strap with silver hands on a black dial. With a 40.9mm stainless steel case, this piece is perfect for gentlemen who like a classic-looking mechanical dress watch.
This watch features a chronograph function with minutes and seconds and embossed Arabic numerals. There are also perfectly proportioned feuille hands that display a perfect harmony of function and aesthetics. Powered by a manual-winding Calibre 76240, this watch offers 44 hours of power reserve. In addition, it is waterproof up to 30 metres.
IWC Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph
The sportiest-looking watch among the collection, the IWC Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph comes in a 43.5mm stainless steel case, a silver-plated dial, and a black rubber strap.
The silver dial features a Flyback chronograph with hours, minutes, and seconds functions. Together, the hour and minute counters are combined in a totaliser visible at the 12 o’clock mark. The luminescent hands and indexes blend very well with the sub-dials. Meanwhile, a date aperture sits at the 3 o’clock position.
An IWC-manufactured 89361 calibre movement drives this chronograph watch, giving it a robust 68 hours of power reserve. It is completed by a 60m water-resistance function.
IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar
The main attraction of this stunning IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar timepiece is, of course, its moon phase display that shows the phases of the moon in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
This 44.2mm watch also displays four sub-dials on its stunning blue dial. The subdials feature a perpetual calendar, perpetual moon phase, and power reserve display. The perpetual calendar itself displays the date, day, and month, including the year in four digits shown in a small window between the 7 and 8 o’clock positions.
An automatic self-winding IWC-manufactured 52615 Calibre movement drives this watch, offering a total of 168 hours of power reserve. A black alligator leather strap perfectly complements this 18K white gold watch. Moreover, it is waterproof up to 30 metres.
IWC Portugieser Minute Repeater
The IWC Portugieser Minute Repeater is a handsome watch encased in 18K 5N gold with a 44.2mm diameter. The silver-plated dial features 18K 5N gold hands and Arabic numeral markers as well as a small seconds subdial at the 6 o’clock mark.
An in-house manual-winding Calibre 98950 movement drives this powerful timepiece. This watch also features a minute repeater function and offers a power reserve of 46 hours.
For the minute repeater to work, one needs to push down the repeating slide located at 9 o’clock. Afterward, the mechanism chimes out every hour from the last “12” with a single strike, then every quarter since the last full hour with a double strike, and every minute that has passed since the last quarter with one strike. An elegant brown alligator strap finishes this beautiful watch which is limited to 500 pieces.
IWC Portugieser Constant-Force Tourbillon Edition “150 Years”
As one of the most technical timepieces in the collection, the IWC Portugieser Constant-Force Tourbillon Edition “150 Years” marks the brand’s 150-year anniversary. It features a very complex IWC-manufactured manual-winding Caliber 94805 movement and boasts a power reserve of 96 hours.
This 46mm watch is the only timepiece in the collection that has a moon phase display and a constant-force tourbillon. The white dial proudly displays the tourbillon at 9 o’clock. There is also a moon phase function at 1 o’clock, while a power reserve indicator sits between the 4 and 5 o’clock mark.
Blue clock hands and black Arabic numeral hour markers perfectly blend well with the rest of the functions on the dial. Finally, a Santoni black alligator leather strap finishes this highly technical masterpiece.
For another interesting read on IWC, check out our feature on the IWC Aquatimer collection here.
