At Watches & Wonders 2023, IWC was one of the most talked about brands; in part thanks to its relaunch of the legendary IWC Ingenieur 40 collection — translating the original Gerald Genta design into a contemporary steel/titanium interpretation.
Now, IWC Schaffhausen is taking a softer, more pensive approach; with an evolution of its Portugieser watches centered around shifting light and the passage of time. New life was last breathed into the collection in 2020, with a lineup that included the debut of the IWC Portugieser Automatic 40 and the introduction of in-house movements across the board (nicely documented in the most recent salmon-tone reference).
While the Automatic 40 took inspiration from the Ref. 325 of the late 1930s, the 2024 IWC Portugieser collection looks to the skies for its inspiration: with four colourways inspired by gradual shifts in daytime lighting, including ‘Silver’; Champagne-tone ‘Dune’; icy ‘Horizon Blue’; and jet-black ‘Obsidian’. Let’s get into them.
Our Favourite New IWC Releases At Watches & Wonders 2024
IWC Portugieser Automatic 40 & Automatic 42
Kicking things off with one of the most elegant watches to leave the IWC factory in recent years, the Portugieser Automatic 40 returns in stunning light blue or jet black.
Both are available in 40.4mm cases, measuring a slender thickness of 12.4mm (crafted in white and 5N rose gold respectively). Both are paired with tonally matched Santoni leather straps; and contain the IWC-manufactured 82200 calibre with 60 hours of power reserve.
Meanwhile, the slightly larger IWC Portugieser Automatic 42 consists of a further 6 different references (four in steel, two in gold); also featuring the same new icy Horizon Blue and jet-black Obsidian colours, as well as a champagne-tone Dune reference.
Distinguished by a power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock and small seconds at 9 o’clock, these are equipped with the technically impressive 52011 calibre — able to generate an impressive 7-day power reserve, thanks to the use of twinned mainspring barrels.
Rather excitingly, the Ref. IW501704 (one of the models in this new 42mm lineup) will be available to purchase on a factory-issued bracelet — a first for the collection.
IWC Portugieser Chronograph
Like the Portugieser Automatic, the new chronograph models have been hit with a dose of sky-inspired colour; with three new references in the Dune, Horizon Blue, and Obsidian shades.
Cased in 41mm of steel, white gold, and 5N gold respectively, they’re kept slender at just 13.1mm in thickness thanks to the column-wheel-equipped 69355 calibre, delivering 46 hours of power reserve.
IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44
The fan-favourite IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 also makes a welcome return; with four new watches in 2024. Three of these are in the new dial colours of the collection, while the final model features a silver-plated dial accented with gold details. All are in precious metal, split equally between white gold and IWC’s proprietary 18K Armor Gold®.
44.4 mm in diameter and 14.9 mm in thickness, these are less likely to slide under the cuff of your shirt, powered by the long-lasting calibre 52616 that (as most enthusiasts know by now) only needs adjusting once every 577.5 years.
IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night
One of the more complicated novelties IWC has debuted this year is the Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night: featuring the eponymous spherical globe-like day/night indicator in the 9 o’clock position. Located at 6 o’clock is the tourbillon aperture, offering a small window into the 56-component tourbillon mechanism (weighing just 0.675 grams) that rotates once per minute and delivers a manually wound 86 hours of power reserve.
With a 42.4mm 18-carat Armor Gold® case (developed for its toughness compared to regular 5N gold), it’s an impressively thin watch at just 10.8mm tall, while the black Obsidian lacquered dial provides an eye-catching contrast.
IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar
Last, but certainly not least, is the star of the show for new IWC watches in 2024 — the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar. Its big claim to fame? A moonphase complication that only requires adjusting once every 45 million years. (As a little context to just how ridiculous this achievement is, 45 million years ago the planet was halfway through the Eocene Epoch, in which the first modern mammals began to appear.)
This jaw-dropping degree of accuracy is down to the newly developed IWC-manufactured calibre 52640. Promising an accurate display of calendar information until the year 3999, it is also equipped with a high-precision moonphase.
Despite all of this radical ingenuity, the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar’s platinum case only measures 44.4mm in diameter and 15mm in thickness — pretty compact for a mechanical object that is able to operate so far into the future. A truly mind-mending timepiece in its sophistication, the Eternal Calendar is a wonderful novelty from IWC in 2024 and the perfect capstone to all of the brand’s new releases.
