Today June 1, 2018, IWC has released two new watches to expand its Portugieser collection. A new Portugieser Perpetual Calendar in platinum and a new Portugieser Automatic Time/Date in stainless steel. Both watches are fitted with silver-plated dials, rhodium-plated hands and equipped with Santoni black alligator straps. The reference numbers are IW503406 for the perpetual calendar and IW500712 for the automatic. Both watches are already available for sale as of today via the IWC website or their ADs.
IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar Platinum
Endowed with a 44.2 mm platinum case that is particularly corrosion-resistant and hypoallergenic, the gleaming platinum case perfectly matches the silver-plated dial, as well as the rhodium-plated hands and appliques. Powering this new watch is the automatic in-house calibre IWC 52615. This 54-jewel movement beating at a frequency of 28,800 vph —4 Hz— provides a power reserve of 7 days and features an oscillating weight in 18K red gold that is visible via the display case back. With its platinum case, this is the first platinum watch in the Portugieser collection.
The main feature on the dial of this watch is the perpetual calendar. Developed by Kurt Klaus in the 1980s, the mechanism consists of around 80 parts and displays the date, day, month and moon phase, as well as the year in four digits. It can be easily adjusted using the crown. The mechanism identifies different month lengths and leap years automatically and will work until 2100 without needing any correction. This version of the calendar comes with a double moon display that gives an inverted view of the moon phases for both the northern and southern hemispheres. Thanks to a special reduction gear, the display is so accurate that it will only deviate from the actual orbit of the earth's satellite after 577.5 years, and then only by one day.
Sticker Price $53,300 USD. For more info on IWC click here.
IWC Portugieser Automatic
In addition to the new perpetual calendar a new version of the Portugieser Automatic makes its appearance. This new Portugieser Automatic ref. IW500712 is endowed with a 42.3 mm stainless steel case and fitted with a gorgeous silver-plated dial. This new variant particularly showcases the applied Arabic numerals, the railway track chapter ring and the slim 'feuille' —leaf-shaped hands.
Powered by the automatic in-house calibre IWC 52010, the 31-jewel movement provides a power reserve of 7 days while beating at a frequency of 28,800 vph.
Sticker Price $12,700 USD. For more info on IWC click here.
