Arguably one of the more gorgeous and impressive watches from Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024 is the re-engineered IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 — seen here are two of the four iterations, Obsidian over 18k 5N Armor Gold® as Ref. IW503702, and Horizon Blue over 18k white gold as Ref. IW503703. While the underlying recipe is a familiar one, since the perpetual calendar-equipped Portugieser (and the “Portuguese” before it) has forever been an IWC staple, there is something to these new versions that highlights what IWC is about — and perhaps should be yet more.
What would that be? Perpetual refinement. Cheesier than Jean-Claude Biver’s basement, I know, but it is every bit as real. We turn to a brand like Hublot for sheer entertainment, a shock, even — while we seek stability and tireless pursuit of yet greater refinement from companies such as IWC, with a moment of awe and surprise appreciated every once in a while when it is testing its stylistic limitations. We should also add that launching new-new watches has not exactly been an IWC strongpoint — the Ingenieur, while extremely popular, is rather expensive and slightly compromised in its execution, and you have probably all but forgotten about the re-launched Da Vincis and women’s Portofinos by now. Harsh, but true.
By contrast, just look at this new IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 — it is drop-dead gorgeous. Beautifully proportioned, nicely executed, and somehow… Dense-looking. As if you took much of what was beefy, robust, engineered, and refined in a watch, put it all in a mold, and subjected all that to very high, very even pressure. In more concrete terms, the new Portugieser is powerful because while you are looking at it, you are not thinking about any other watch — and, believe it or not, the same cannot be said about a shockingly high number of $40,000 watches.
New for 2024 is the IWC Portugieser’s case construction in an effort to make it slimmer and more refined. It is almost too simple, with wide, curved, polished lug tops and an arched, horizontally brushed case profile, topped with a polished, concave bezel — a cunning little detail that is virtually impossible to spot at first, or even fifth, sight, that nevertheless frames the dial and the boxed crystal above it.
On the wrist, the dial color drastically affects the look and feel of the various IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 watches. This is true for any watch, but the colors in this new collection are so vivid and the dials themselves are so prominent in the overall aesthetic of the piece that picking one over the other is truly a defining challenge. Therefore, the real star is the dial — but also in part because it also hints at the functionality that lies beneath it.
For a reason we will reveal in a moment, and you will see this in our hands-on pictures, too, the dial and its furniture are especially bright on the new Portugieser. The lacquered base is reflective, and so are the hands and appliqués, and yet the hands are easy to find and differentiate without having to look twice. Having seen so many watches, nuances like a difference in the brightness of a dial stand out to us at first sight. In such instances, the impression comes first, and we only learn the cause after as opposed to reading technical specifications and actively looking for it. With the new IWC Portugieser Perpetual 44, the brand claims that the dials are lacquered 15 times, finely ground down over and over again, and then polished to establish its deep-rooted sheen. You just can’t fake an effect like this.
Neat additional details include the depth of the subdials, the quality of the applied hour markers, and especially the beveled and polished cap just below the main hands. This is required because the 3 and 9 o’clock subdials also have stacked hands — for the days and date, and the running seconds and day of the week, respectively — and so the hour and minute hands at the center have to be mounted fairly high above the plane of the dial. Brands are often betting on people just looking somewhere else, to save on expenses and manufacturing complexity, leaving a gaping hole as well as the ugly base of the hands for all to see. This little polished cap is a very elegant and nicely made solution to an issue that stems from the inherent complexity (the number of stacked displays) of a perpetual calendar-equipped IWC Portugieser watch.
Perhaps the most imposing-looking of the four is the IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 (Ref. IW503702) that went with an “Obsidian black” dial and 18k Armor Gold® case. This gold, IWC claims, “is considerably harder and more wear-resistant than conventional 5N gold” — although we would not hope for Magic Gold levels of “wear resistance” (whatever that means, anyway). Something that holds true for just about any gold watch with a black dial is how the shadowy, dark areas of the gold case are complemented by the black of the dial, which creates a pleasing sense of unity between case and dial that is not present on all case material and dial color combinations. It is a little detail you may not care about, but it does work beautifully in the real world.
The Horizon Blue version of the IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 (Ref. IW503703) features an 18k white gold case with a bright blue dial that is sunburst brushed in its main area and circular brushed inside its moon phase display. Again, the effect is decidedly different from the black dial version, despite all indications, hands, hour markers, and displays sharing the exact same design. Speaking of the moon phase, IWC claims to have increased its accuracy from 122 to 577.5 years with a larger reduction gear.
The movement, in typical IWC style, fills the case to its brim. You are looking at the “IWC-manufactured calibre 52616” that combines a modern 4Hz operating frequency with an exceedingly long, 7-day power reserve replenished by a massive oscillating weight and a Pellaton self-winding system with ceramic parts for bi-directional operation. The list of complications includes a perpetual calendar with displays for the date, day, month, and year in four digits (dated up to 2299), as well as moonphases for the Northern and Southern hemispheres, and a small hacking seconds.
The movement is more impressive-looking than it is traditionally beautiful. There is a high — maybe too high for some tastes — a variety of surface treatments, colors, and materials, and components designed to draw your attention, such as the gigantic rotor in solid gold, appear a tad too machine-produced for a near-$50,000 watch. The sheer size, complexity, and beefy execution of the IWC caliber 52616 make for a very impressive caseback, but a few small efforts could probably still be made to achieve yet greater aesthetic consistency and refinement.
All in all, the IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 is an absolute beast of a watch, and it is so especially because it works with its almost intimidating complexity and condensed design — but does not overdo things. It manages to be noticeable without actively seeking attention, and it appears functionality-focused without simply being too much. Hands-on it gave the impression of one of the better perpetual calendar luxury watches in quite a while.
The price for such a complicated piece in gold will always be “up there” — but with its Klaus-designed, exclusively crown-operated perpetual calendar, and brutish vibe, it is a very tempting proposition to lure folks away from a gold Day-Date or Lange 1 offered at virtually identical prices. The IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 watch is priced at $46,500 in its 18k 5N Armor Gold® versions and $47,500 USD in 18k white gold. You can learn more at the brand’s website.
