PRE-SIHH: First Look at the IWC Portugieser Annual Calendar

Felix Scholz

One of the most interesting of the pre-SIHH releases we’ve seen so far is a more refined piece from the watchmaker for men (who have nevertheless recently released an impressive ladies collection), IWC. We’re talking about the Portugieser (not Portuguese – more on that later) Annual Calendar. This is an important watch for the brand, and for a few reasons.

It’s the first annual calendar complication for IWC. It took them five years to develop the 52850 movement, and while many features, like the 7 day hour power reserve, several virtually impervious to wear ceramic components and the Pellaton winding system are not new features, the annual calendar itself is.
IWC have extended themselves technically, opting for a ‘jump’ display, rather than the more common type which might see Tuesday dragging into Wednesday over a few hours on Tuesday night. In this watch the change happens instantly.

And while the technical side exhibits elegance, the visual design is somewhat more polarizing, it’s a very top heavy complication, and less balanced than say the more traditional Master Calendar from JLC. But I suppose with the iconic placement of the power reserve and the seconds, the engineers didn’t have to many choices. The counterintuitive month/date/day layout is a bit of a strange choice as well, and even though it looks balanced it seems impractical. Surely day/date/month would be just as balanced. Oh, and does it have to say “Annual Calendar” on the dial?

These points aside the Portugieser Annual Calendar is a good looking piece, 44.2mm across, in white gold and with a pretty stunning looking blue starburst dial (it will also be offered in silver and will come in steel and red gold.

The other reason this watch is important is that it’s the first glimpse of an entirely revamped Portuguese collection which is now the Portugieser (a nod to the watches history), and which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. IWC are using the occasion to refresh the mainstay collection, bringing more work in house, and also releasing 10 new models, many of which will be essentially the same as existing models, with minor tweaks. However we are looking forward to the heritage inspired Portugieser Hand-Wound Eight Days Edition “75th Anniversary.”

Whatever you think of the Annual Calendar model, we suspect that one of the biggest stories of SIHH 2015 will be the rebirth of the IWC Portugieser collection.