Beautiful thicker 45.5mm Case, with 14.5mm Thickness. Sapphire Crystals front and back, with a 60m Water Resistance. The sapphire back gives a beautiful view of the IWC Caliber 89360 with pellaton winding system, and finally a Date on the Portuguese! Only thing I’m not sure about is the Rubber strap, red second hand and Yacht Club written on the dial.
The IWC caliber 89360 is designed completely in-house with 40 jewels and a 68 hour power reserve. The Caliber 89360 puts the hours and seconds counters for the chronograph on a single subdial at 12 o’clock for easier reading. Date is at 3 o’clock
IWC has released their newly re-designed Aquatimer in a solid Rose Gold version, and it looks stunning. While not a fan of the new Steel Aquatimer, I really like this rose gold offering, with their in house IWC Caliber 89360 movement. This is the superb movement used in the Da Vinci Chronograph which features IWC’s signature Pelaton Winding system, and Chronograph hour and minute counters both on the subdial at 12 o’clock. Chronograph second counter is central, and second dial for the time is located at 6 o’clock.
Beautiful display back shows off the nicely finished movement and pelaton winding system. The watch measures a healthy 44mm in diameter and 15.5mm thickness.
IWC opened the doors to it’s new Flagship Boutique in Hong Kong on June 1st, 2009. This state of the art showroom is absolutely amazing inside. And they say the luxury goods industry is in turmoil…
The Boutique will carry all the standard collections as well as some limited exclusive timepieces available only at the boutique. This is IWC’s first Flagship store, and joins many other prestigious luxury brands at 1881 Heritage, the location of the boutique. The store extends to over 200 metres, which is around 2000 square feet.
Finally got a video review of my IWC AMG Ingenieur up. This is my favourite travel and all-purpose watch. It does not draw any attention and looks great. The only complaint that I have is possibly that it looks too sporty with a suit and the dark grey of the titanium is a bit clashing with most other types of jewelry such as wedding rings, etc. However, it does make an excellent sports watch and while being made of titanium, still weighs a big more than most Titanium watches that I’ve owned.
Driver8 did a fantastic review of his beautiful and popular IWC Big Pilot watch. This is one of the IWC’s that utilize their 5000 series movements with the 7 day power reserve. The movement is a beautiful work of art with a nice gold medallion inserted on the rotor, and uses IWC’s proprietary Pellaton Winding system that was developed in the late 40’s by Albert Pellaton. The watch measures an imposing 46.2mm, and calls back the days of yore in WWII when pilots wore these watches. The watch also uses a faraday cage to protect the movement from magnetic influences.
Beautiful watch, and Driver8’s review is top notch. Check it out:
Again, IWC has secured the top ranking of luxury watch brands performed by the LBSI. The index measures the value and equity of luxury brands across North America, using data collected by wealthy American consumers of these products. The information is from actual wealthy consumers, rather than non-consumers of luxury goods that only recognize names like Tag Heuer and Rolex.
The index uses factors such as “quality, social status and self-enhancement” in order to base their results. IWC’s blend of uniqueness and exclusivity, superior quality, self-enhancement and status gives them a unique place among consumer’s hearts.
This is not a huge surprise to me, but I agree that IWC is among my favourite watch brands and I am set on purchasing another IWC watch and adding to my collection soon!
Not the one I’m getting, but a little eye candy: The IWC Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere.
The IWC Portuguese is one of the most recognizable classics in the IWC line of watches, having changed very little from generation to generation, though new variations have been coming out such as the F.A. Jones, 7 Day 5000 series Portuguese with the Pellaton winding system, and the new Regulateur Portuguese. The Portuguese Chrono is probably the most commonly seen variation of this IWC, and also the entry level model.
The one I have here is a Steel case, with Opaline dial and Gold Arabics and hands. The Chronograph hands are blued steel to differentiate them from the ones that tell the time. The movement is a modified Valjoux 7750 which IWC calls the Caliber 79350. The date wheel has been removed, and the seconds subdial moved from the 9 o’clock position to the 6 o’clock position. The movement is also the all gold-colored version of the Valjoux 7750 as you can see below.
The dial is a beautiful peice of work, with Guilloche subdials and finely lacquered writing, and the three-peice case is very well crafted. The bezel is polished stainless steel with a domed Sapphire Crystall, and the case and caseback are mostly Brushed Stainless. The Crocodile strap that came with it is on the thin side, but still quite serviceable. The only thing the watch is missing is a Date, but the dial would likely suffer from the addition of a date window.
A rear shot:
The case is 41mm in diameter, almost the same size as the Breitling Navitimer, and it wears very similarly as well. The style of the watch lends itself to the slightly older consumer as it is less sporty and more classic. Overall, an impeccable peice, with tons of history and style. Wearing the IWC brand tells those around you that you are a watch aficionado, not just a casual wearer.
With the booming Swiss Watch industry there have been certain brands that are doing extremely well, among them, IWC is showing a very large increase in sales over the last few years according to the Richemont Group.
IWC has always been a player in the high end and midrange with their more affordable Aquatimer series of watches, which use modified ETA movements as well as their grand complications and tourbillons. IWC’s current lineup consists of: Portofino, Aquatimer, Ingenieur, Portuguese, Da Vinci and their Grand Complications. They also differ from much of the competition in that they only produce mens watches. There are one of very few watch companies that make that claim, whether or not it really is significant.
IWC Aquatimer Chrono
My passion for IWC first started with the new Aquatimer, and then the Ingenieur really caught my eye. I was also a sucker for the beautiful gentlemanly look of the IWC Portuguese Chronograph, and really would love to have one of the 8 day models with the display back showing the beautiful Pellaton rotor system.
IWC Ingenieur
When I found out that IWC was going to introduce a new Ingenieur in 2005 with a new 8000 series manufacture movement, I was quite happy. This meant that IWC would have a reasonably priced manufacture movement model. Unfortunately, the Ingenieur Chronograph did not also receive the same treatment and still uses a modified ETA/Valjoux 7750. Perhaps they will make a Chronograph version of the Ingenieur with an in-house movement soon. The good news is that this makes the current Chrono almost the same price as the standard model.
IWC has also expanded the Ingenieur series as I had mentioned in my other blog post on the Ingenieur. Hopefully they will follow suit with the rest of their watches and start introducing some in the 44-45mm size. I’d love to see a 44mm affordable Portuguese.
The new Da Vinci Chronograph with it’s unique Tonneau shaped case is definitely a beautiful piece for the more well-endowed WIS.
Whichever IWC you choose, they all have much to offer and the company is definitely moving forward quickly and picking up a lot of momentum in the process. My Favourites are the IWC Ingenieur, and Portuguese which I have just added to the collection. Look for a review soon.
Here’s one of my many videos, one that’s a Promo Video for the IWC Caliber 5000 movement:
