The IWC brand has its main model in the Portugieser model, a piece heir to the best Swiss watchmaking tradition, which has stood the test of time like few others, thanks to its sobriety and unmistakable style. The IWC Portugieser is an icon, this time we analyze its characteristics and review the history of IWC, one of the most important Swiss manufacturers.

What is IWC manufacturing like?

IWC is a northern Swiss city and commune, on the border with Germany, which is home to IWC's headquarters and entire manufacturing facility.

This watchmaking center has been operating for more than 150 years, in 2018 the IWC complex underwent a profound change, since the Manufakturzentrum was inaugurated in its premises, a building built to house the entire compositional process of IWC watches, thus centralizing all the production at the headquarters.

The history of the brand begins in 1868, when Florence Ariosto Jones founded the International Watch Co. in Schaffhausen, which would soon become one of the most important watchmaking centers in the world.

In 1885, he launched his first iconic mass-produced watch, the Pallweber, which many years later would be honored by IWC. The first IWC wristwatches appear at the end of the 19th century and become a novelty never seen before.

Throughout the 20th century, IWC became one of the main manufactures, creating watchmaking lines that have greatly influenced the way watches are manufactured. The most important lines of IWC are the following:

• • Aviator watches: They are among the most sought after among collectors of this type of watches. These are versatile, resistant pieces with a sporty look that means they can be combined in any situation.
  • Portofino: Along with the Portugieser line, the best known of IWC. They follow a classic line, elegant and distinguished, with clean lines but risking details.
  • DaVinci: This is a very special and exclusive collection, in which they wanted to pay tribute to the Tuscan artist. This line is much more colorful and imaginative than the classic IWC proposals.
  • Ingenieur: Both the case and the rest of the details are more robust compared to the delicate lines of collections like Portofino. Its main feature is the exceptional caliber that accompanies all the watches in the Ingenieur line.
  • Aquatimer: This is IWC's underwater line. These watches are prepared to be used underwater and resist great depths without their mechanism suffering any damage.
  • Anniversary Collection: We said that his first iconic watch was the Pallweber, the anniversary collection pays homage to this curious design, with 29 pieces with different characteristics, but with a very defined design.
  • Portugieser: It is, without a doubt, IWC's best-known watch collection and one of the most coveted in Swiss watchmaking.

The perpetual calendar Made In IWC

We usually talk about the milestones and patents of the brands, IWC has contributed with different watchmaking inventions to the history of time measurement, however, there is a patent that stands out above all, the perpetual calendar.

It was not until the beginning of the 1980s that a watchmaker, Kurt Klaus, was able to develop a perpetual calendar, adapted to all the irregularities of the Gregorian calendar that is used almost everywhere in the world, Kurt Klaus was the main watchmaker of IWC and was able to develop this system just in time to incorporate it into the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar model, in the year 1985.

With only 80 pieces, the perpetual calendar developed by IWC shows date, day, month, year in four figures and lunar calendar. This calendar is capable of recognizing the duration of each month independently, but also adds a day to February every 4 years, therefore also counting leap years.

The lunar calendar is so precise that it only deviates one full day every 577 years, a prodigy of technique that all the great watchmaking brands have subsequently imitated.

IWC Portugieser, a legendary watch

There are many collectors who, if they were only allowed to use one of his watches, would certainly choose one of his Portugieser IWC.

IWC Portugieser was born in the 1930s, as a result of this tradition it maintains its hands, smooth Arabic numerals and the size of its case. In addition, the style of the dial follows a single motif, to offer a clear and complete view of the watch, so that each component can be easily seen.

The minute track of the Portugieser model is known as Chemin du Fer, because it imitates the shape of a railway.

The origin of the Portugieser dates back to the 1930s, when two Portuguese merchants, hence its name, asked IWC to design wristwatches capable of reaching the precision of a pocket watch. Calibers 74 and 98 were used for its manufacture, which are still in use, although improved. The first Portugieser came out in 1939.

The most popular model in the Portugieser range is the Chronograph, a double mechanical movement watch with a chronograph. The Portugieser Chronograph has different versions, all of them characterized by the nobility of its metals, the jewels hidden in its mechanism, around 30 depending on the model, and the impressive precision of its caliber.

The waterproofness of the Chronograph reaches 3 bars, the caliber is 79350, one of the best created by IWC, it also has a power reserve of up to 44 hours, the crystal is anti-reflective sapphire and it has a minute and second stop .

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