IWC Takes The Portugieser From Here to Eternity

Jeremy Freed April 11, 2024

Last year’s IWC booth at Watches & Wonders was exclusively dedicated to the re-launch of the classic 1970s Ingenieur. This year, however, the Swiss luxury watchmaker is looking ahead — one-thousand nine-hundred and seventy-five years ahead, to be exact. It’s the year of the Portugieser at IWC, and the brand has revamped the entire line with new cases, new dials, upgraded movements, and a new Eternal Calendar complication that will display the accurate date through the next millennium and far beyond. There are new versions of the 40mm and 42mm automatic models, new chronographs, and a grip new of Perpetual Calendar Portugiesers, too. Here are the ones we’re most excited about.

Portugieser Eternal Calendar

Among IWC’s most important achievements is the development of its first perpetual calendar in the 1980s. Four decades later, it’s back with another even more impressive feat: the brand’s first secular perpetual calendar. What’s a secular perpetual calendar, you ask? The Gregorian calendar, which is the one used by most of the world, consists of 12 months with 28, 30 or 31 days, with years that are divisible by four (what we call leap years) containing a 29th day in February. There are, however, certain centurial years (2100 for example) that don’t count as leap years, in which a conventional perpetual calendar requires adjustment (thus making it not quite truly perpetual).

IWC has solved this problem with the new Portugieser Eternal Calendar (Ref. IW505701) a watch that’s mechanically programmed to calculate the leap year correctly until at least the year 3999 (apparently it hasn’t yet been officially decided whether the year 4000 will be a leap year or not). “With the new Portugieser Eternal Calendar, we venture further than ever before, touching the limits of eternity,” offers Chris Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. “Our first secular perpetual calendar automatically takes into account the Gregorian calendar’s complex leap-year exception rules by skipping the leap year three times over 400 years.”

In the spirit of true showmanship, however, that’s not all. “True to the spirit of engineers who are always pushing the boundaries,” adds Grainger-Herr. “We have also fitted this technical marvel with a moon phase display that will only deviate from the moon’s orbit by one day after 45 million years.”

Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night

In addition to the tasteful combination of an 18-carat Armour Gold case and Obsidian lacquered dial, this new tourbillon takes a different approach to astronomical time. The Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night of a globe-shaped day and night indicator that’s visible both from the dial and the movement side. Featuring a dark side and a bright side, the globe rotates around its axis once every 24 hours, creating a unique visual indication of day and night.

Portugieser Automatic 42 and Portugieser Automatic 40

Two new automatic models round out the collection with slimmer, re-engineered cases and double box-glass sapphire crystals offering unobstructed views of some lovely new lacquered dials in Horizon Blue, Obsidian, and Dune colours. The Portugieser Automatic 42 includes a date and seven-day power-reserve display in addition to the line’s signature small seconds dial, and is available in white gold, 5N yellow gold, and steel versions. The Portugieser Automatic 40 receives a similar update this year, with new versions in white and 5N gold and a movement featuring components made of zirconium oxide ceramic.