IWC didn’t shy away from releasing a lot of watches this year. Unlike a brand like Rolex, which releases a lot of SKUs spread across its wide catalog of collections, IWC is often much more measured in its approach – an appropriate way to describe a Swiss-German brand on pretty much any day of the week.
Last year, we got the Ingenieur in only a few different variants. This year, the brand stepped on the gas with a number of fantastic Portugiesers in eye-catching and beautiful color combinations. One of those watches was the mind-bending, complex Eternal Calendar. Most of the mainstays (the perpetual calendar, chronograph, and time-only models) come in all the dial colors. But the one that stood out to me as the most surprising (and one of the most interesting) was one that stood alone: the only tourbillon in the new Portugieser lineup. You can get it in any color you want, as long as it’s black (and gold). The new IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day and Night follows in a long line of Portugiesers with tourbillons. The collection itself is beloved by a lot of watch folks and often is the non-watch newcomer’s entrée into IWC. It’s a classic design, simple yet bold, with enough wrist presence to be eye-catching but not overbearing. The case has been slightly reworked, with a double glassbox crystal at the front and back. At 42.4mm by 10.8mm, it is not small – IWC is certainly not afraid of using size to catch attention or to try new technical achievements – but it’s not too big to be unwearable. I actually almost overlooked the watch while photographing at IWC’s press previews. Instead, my eye gravitated toward the combination of 18k Armor gold and “Obsidian” lacquer dial on the perpetual calendar. The dial is lacquered in layers and brushed into a sunray pattern that catches direct sunlight for a pop of shine while turning deep and dark black in shadows. Like its tourbillon sibling, it had gold-plated hands and gold appliques. The IWC perpetual calendar dial is a type of complexity my mind could not be overwhelmed by while I appreciated the gold and black combination. While past Portugiesers with tourbillons have run the gamut from the simple to the complex (like the Portugieser Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph) this one sits somewhere in between, and the design of the dial kind of confused me. A bit of lopsided tension made me want to look closer.
A tourbillon itself is more of a flex of anachronistic and largely unnecessary technology that is, at best, captivating for actively moving and keeping the dial interesting. Here, there’s another component for visual tension: a day and night indicator. Effectively, as you move the hands, you’ll see the day/night indicator operate to tell you if the time you set is for AM and PM. The small round ball, split down the middle into a dark black or gold globe, sits at 9:00 on the dial. It’s a design that’s reminiscent of Arnold & Son’s Luna Magna, but in this case, the orb isn’t a moonphase. That complication is powered by the IWC-manufactured calibre 81925 manually-wound movement running at 28,800 vph with 84 hours of power reserve. You can see the movement through the sapphire caseback and note the circular Geneva striping that gives a sweeping pattern to the architecture. But as a fan of a good story, I couldn’t help but be won over by an anecdote the team at IWC shared with me about the new movement.
Apparently the idea for the new IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day and Night came from a (now former) apprentice at the brand who submitted the design for consideration. Imagine being a young watchmaker in a massive, storied brand like IWC, and raising your hand with a potential new complication for the brand. Then think about the response when you find out that the brand plans to develop and introduce that complication as a standalone pillar as a part of the relaunch of one of their biggest collections. It’s proof that great ideas can come from anywhere, if you’re willing to listen.