We are only hours away people till SIHH 2010 is officially under way. If you remember last year IWC went citizen, which was just a major embarrassment. This year they really got their shiz together and so far so good. No major mistakes. Keeping it clean simple and sticking to their heritage. I am proud to say that IWC has given their portuguese line of watches a much needed facelift, I mean, honestly there really aren't any watches that I must have except one so far. This is huge improvement from last year seeing there were absolutely no way in hell they created a desire for me to want even one. The remarkable thing is that they have only announced one product line of watches for SIHH 2010 so far, the portuguese line. See here is the new Portuguese roster.
The new Portuguese Yacht-Club watch, which is the first time IWC has made the portuguese sporty on a rubber strap. This watch is 45.4 mm, chrono with flyback function, stopwatch has hours, minutes and seconds, and the subdials are vertically displayed. The watch comes in three varieties of metals red gold with slate colored dial and rubber strap, steel with black dial and rubber strap, and steel with silver dial and rubber strap. Unlike the the other portuguese chrono watches this watch has a date at the 6 o'clock position. The watch is water resistant to 60 meters and has a sapphire crystal front and back to view the very durable iwc calibre 89360. The only thing dirty about this watch and is quite questionalble is the fact that is says yacht club in the seconds counter subdial which is also a hacking seconds counter.
The Second watch on the roster is the New Grande Complication is Rose Gold. This watch is 45 mm and features a perpetual calendar, with perpetual moonphase, chronograph function, hacking small seconds, minute repeater, rose gold only 50 pieces per year being produced and self-winding automatic 79091 calibre, special engraving on the caseback of a sextant. Nice watch but I am sure wont really be affordable.
Third, the portuguese Mystere Tourbillon of course highly finished, very detailed and complicated 44.2 mm with 7 day self winding automatic Pellaton movement with retrograde date and flying tourbillon that is suspended in mid air and rotates on it's axis once a minute. This watch is available in red gold limited to 500 pieces and platinum limited to 250 pieces for the world.
The fourth watch in the portuguese collection is the new FA Jones hand wound tourbillon. THis watch looks really cool as the minute tourbillon counter is at the 9 o'clock position, grey seconds subdial at the six o clock position and the very annoying FA jones signature at the 3 o'clock position. If they wanted a signature to take up space they could have used mine. Seriously though the signature belongs on the movement because that's the whole point. This watch has a 43.1 mm case and is produced in red gold with a limited production of 500 pieces. The movement is the hand wound 9800 calibre and the dial is a black dial with hand applied red gold arabic numerals, The watch has a 65 hour power reserve and black crocodile strap.
The fifth installment is the Portuguese Minute repeater which chimes the hours, minutes and quarters with a very harmonious and distinctive series of tones. The watch is available in platinum and red gold with a limited edition of 500 pieces in each metal. The watch is 44 mm and has a 98950 hand wound movement with a 46 hour power reserve. Clean simple and musical to the core. What more do you want for a hundred plus thousand watch!
The sixth piece in the collection is the new and improved 44.2 mm portuguese perpetual calendar with the new midnight blue dial in white gold displaying norther and southern hemispheres to display the phases of the moon. The watch also displays the day/date month and calendar year, small hacking seconds and comes in red gold also with a variety of different dials. This watch has fought hard to keep it's identity with a shit load of modifications over the years and after this years SIHH, its finally come into it's own.
The seventh and ninth model within the portuguese collection are two watches that haven't really changed in style or size. The seven day portuguese is now available in steel with silver dial rose gold hands and numbers. Those of you who read this blog already know this. The other is the portuguese chrono is now available in red gold with slate dial and hand appied red gold arabic numbers and hands. The seven day is awesome and they should have done this dial configuration ages ago. The red gold portuguese chrono with slate dial is questionable but I don't completely hate it.
The Final chapter to the portuguese family is the new hand wound. This watch will get a Johnny Flyback Rock On award for favorite dress watch for 2010. I love it! THis watch is a homerun. IWC use to make this watch back in the day with a 34 mm stainless case and a JLC base movement over 15 years ago. I dreamed they would make this watch bigger and to give me a bigger bulge they made it hand wound. So here are the specs. The watch is now available in a 44 mm stainless steel case with black and silvered dial. The movement is an in house 98295 calibre. The watch has 11 arabic numbers hand applied and a well placed subseconds subdial at 6 o'clock position between the arabic numeral 5 & 7 to balance out the dial and keep you captivated . The watch has a 46 hour power reserve when the watch is fully wound. If you like this watch place your orders ASAP, because I have a feeling the watch will be sold out. The watch comes with a black dial with silver arabic numerals and hands and a silver dial with rose gold numbers and hands.
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