IWC Schaffhausen introduces new Portugieser Automatic models, featuring a re-engineered case with a slender profile, and breaks new ground with the Portugieser Eternal Calendar, equipped with a 400-years gear that prompts the calendar to automatically skip three leap years over four centuries – an event which will occur for the first time in the year 2100.
The origins of the Portugieser date back to the late 1930s, when IWC Schaffhausen used a high-precision pocket watch movement to create a distinctively large wristwatch with chronometer precision. Although its simple case shape and purist, easy-to-read dial were created more than 80 years ago, it has remained timeless and retained its freshness to this day. Clean and open dials with applied Arabic numerals, Feuille-type hands and the characteristic minutes scale reminiscent of railway tracks ensure perfect legibility.
PORTUGIESER AUTOMATIC 42 & 40
IWC has refined its timelessly elegant Portugieser watches on every level and presents a new collection of the Portugieser Automatic 42 and 40. All watches feature a carefully reworked case construction with a slender profile, making them visually light and more elegant. The double box-glass on the front and back offer an even better view of the new dials and the IWC-manufactured movements inside.
The dials are the result of an elaborate and highly complex process. The brass bases are either treated with a sunburst finish or given a finely blasted surface before the colour is applied. The key to their unusually pronounced optical depth is the application of 15 layers of lacquer, which is fine-ground and then polished to a high-gloss finish. The sub-dials are milled into both the brass base and the lacquer layer. The three-dimensional effect is further emphasised by the printing, which is carried out in a special procedure and adds to the sensation of depth. To finish, the appliques are individually hand mounted. Finally, the dial graphics have also been carefully reworked for a perfect balance of lightness, elegance and legibility. Larger aperture sapphire crystals on the back showcase the IWC-manufactured movements from the 52000 and 82000 calibre families.
With the new Portugieser Automatic 42 (Ref. IW5017), IWC has launched a timeless and modern instrument dress watch, which fully retains the DNA of the original Portugieser Automatic (Ref. IW50001) from the year 2000. The new models are powered by the IWC-manufactured 52011 calibre. The escapement has been improved to offer better protection against magnetic fields. The Pellaton winding system is reinforced with virtually wear-free zirconium oxide ceramic components and builds up a power reserve of seven days (168 hours) in two barrels. Selected Portugieser Automatic 42 models are presented in new dial colours including Horizon Blue, Obsidian and Dune, reflecting the never-ending cycle of day and night and underscoring the timeless appeal of the Portugieser’s design.
First introduced in 2020, the Portugieser Automatic 40 (Ref. IW3584) presents the essence of the Portugieser design with a more compact case size of 40mm. Standing in direct lineage to the first Portugieser, Reference 325 from 1939, it features a clean and open dial with the small seconds at 6 o’clock and no date window. Both white-gold and 5N-gold models are powered by the IWC-manufactured 82200 calibre. Featuring parts made of zirconium oxide ceramic, the automatic Pellaton winding system builds up a power reserve of 60 hours in the mainspring.
PORTUGIESER ETERNAL CALENDAR
Translating the irregular calendar into a mechanical program for a wristwatch remains one of the most challenging engineering feats in fine watchmaking. The Gregorian calendar divides the year into 12 months with 28, 30 or 31 days. Years that are divisible by four, count as leap years, meaning that a 29th day must be added at the end of February. However, an additional correction is needed to keep the calendar in sync with the actual solar year: only those centurial years that can be divided by 400 are leap years, all others are common years. This means that 2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 2100, 2200 and 2300, for example, are common years.
A traditional perpetual calendar, however, is only programmed for a four-year cycle, in which three common years are always followed by a leap year. By design, it will interpret the year 2100 as a leap year and need a correction, the same for the years 2200 and 2300. As a result, a perpetual calendar will need three corrections over a period of 400 years.
A secular perpetual calendar like the Portugieser Eternal Calendar (Ref. IW505701), on the other hand, is mechanically programmed to take these complex nuances into account. It will calculate the leap year correctly until at least the year 3999, as it has not yet been officially decided whether the year 4000 will be a leap year or not.
400-YEARS GEAR COMPLETES ONLY ONE REVOLUTION EVERY FOUR CENTURIES
The Portugieser Eternal Calendar is based on the same modular and synchronised design as the existing perpetual calendar. All its displays can be advanced using the crown. However, the Portugieser Eternal Calendar features an additional mechanism. Every four years at the end of February, a new module informs the calendar about whether the leap year takes place or not. This so-called 400-years gear completes only one revolution every four centuries. It contains three indentations, which cause the calendar to skip three leap years over that period. This module is designed with impressive efficiency and technical elegance and consists of only eight parts.
MOON PHASE WITH A CALCULATED ACCURACY OF 45 MILLION YEARS
Since the introduction of the perpetual calendar almost four decades ago, IWC has also taken great strides to continuously improve the accuracy of its moon phase displays. The difficulty in displaying the moon phase on the dial of a watch lies in the fact that the moon does not follow a daily rhythm in its orbit around the Earth. A cycle from new moon to new moon – one lunation – does not last 30 days, but rather 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.88 seconds, to be precise. The duration of one calendar month must therefore be reduced as close as possible to one lunar cycle. This is achieved by placing a reduction gear between the base movement and the moon phase disc.
The key to high precision lies in the quantity of wheels used, their proportions and the number of teeth. IWC has used a special computer programme to simulate more than 22 trillion different combinations. For the Portugieser Eternal Calendar, they came up with a new reduction gear train using three intermediate wheels. Mathematically, the display will only deviate from the moon’s orbit by one day after 45 million years. Another challenge consisted in integrating this new gear train into the confined space of the eternal calendar module.
The moon phase is displayed on the dial using the characteristic Double Moon indication, which shows the moon as seen from the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The display consists of two superimposed discs. A celestial disc with two small circular openings rotates above an immobile lower disc with two dots. This negative representation gives the impression that two small moons are waxing or waning. Here, the lower disc is made of titanium and decorated with a Guilloché pattern, while the upper disc is made of glass.
Fitted with a black alligator leather strap from the Italian leather artisan Santoni, the Portugieser Eternal Calendar features an intricately finished platinum case with polished and brushed surfaces. Another highlight is the glass dial, which is manufactured in a complex process. In the first step, the underside of the dial is frosted and lacquered in white. The sub-dials are machined and polished separately and subsequently fixed onto the dial. In the next step, the printing is applied, and the appliques are mounted by hand. The depth of the glass lends the print and appliques a floaty lightness. The numerals and the characteristic Portugieser minute scale are printed on a white lacquered flange sitting between the glass dial and the front glass.
