HANDS ON: The IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Eight Days Edition “75th Anniversary”

The story in a second:

When the first Portuguese was produced in 1939 it was an oversized oddity. 75 years later and it’s an early contender for the best looking watch of 2015.

IWC released a pack of – now renamed – Portugiesers this year, to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of the legendary watch. We’ve already shown you the Annual Calendar with a brand new complication for IWC, but today’s watch, the cumbersomely titled Portugieser Hand-Wound Eight Days Edition “75^th Anniversary” takes us back to where the legend began.

In 1939 two Portuguese businessmen, Messrs. Rodrigues and Teixeria approached the International Watch Company and requested a precise wristwatch that could match the accuracy of a marine chronometer. IWC met this challenge by casing their highly accurate Calibre 74 pocket watch movement in a wristwatch. Because of the size of the movement, the watch measured 43mm across.

To put this in context, this would have been truly gargantuan for the thirties. The modern equivalent of an iPad in the place of an iPhone. There may have even been laughter and mockery.

It goes to show that IWC have been making big watches since the way, way back – wayyyy before it was cool. IWC continued making the watch, in very limited numbers up until the seventies.

By all rights this odd, before-its-time design should have slipped into obscurity, never to be seen again. But, the distinctive watch was noticed, and received a remake in 1993, marking the start of the second chapter of the watch that is now among IWC’s most popular lines in Australia.

This brings us to 2015 and the watch that takes the Portugieser full circle.

The Hand-Wound “75^th Anniversary” takes the icon back to its roots, and is a (fairly) faithful reissue of the original. Just like the original, the 75^th Anniversary clocks in at 43mm, but this time style has caught up with IWC, making it a large, but not ridiculous, watch brimming with old school elegance (and the brand new Calibre 59215). The watch comes in two versions, a cream and red gold model, limited to 175 pieces, and this steel version limited to 750 pieces.

Anyone who has criticised some of IWC’s recent watches, and the hyperbolic ‘engineered for men’ design aesthetic behind them, needs to take a deep breath and look at this watch. Feel your contempt melting away? The elegant feuille hands, the rich black dial with green numerals and the railroad chapter ring detail that perfectly evokes old luminous paint, and that fully written “International Watch Co” makes this one of the sexiest vintage reissues in recent memory. Purists will complain about the date, but honestly they can get over themselves because it’s so well integrated into the design that you hardly notice it, except when you need it.

More like this please IWC.

 IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Eight Days Edition “75th Anniversary” Australian pricing:

• Ref IW510205 (Steel) – $14,000 AUD
• Ref IW510206 (Red Gold) – $25,800 AUD

Please note these prices are indicative, and may change when the watch reaches the retail market.