Highs And Lows Of IWC: From Portofino Restraint To Portugieser Excess
From accessible elegance to high complication, a look at what defines IWC across its catalog.
Welcome back to another installment of High and Low, the column where we explore the full range of a brand’s catalog, from its most accessible to its most aspirational pieces, across both our pre-owned and new collections.
International Watch Company, better known simply as IWC, has in my view one of the more quietly overlooked histories in watchmaking. It is often among the first brands people encounter when getting into watches, yet in today’s landscape it rarely dominates the conversation. More often than not, the spotlight falls on the Ingenieur, buoyed by a steady stream of special editions and, of course, its Genta pedigree, while much of the broader catalog sits just outside the noise.
Because the Schaffhausen manufacture is far more than a one reference headline act. There is real depth here, historically, technically, and importantly, in terms of value. Whether you are buying new or combing through the pre owned market, IWC consistently offers watches that punch above where the conversation tends to place them.
And maybe the most under appreciated part of the story starts at the very beginning.
IWC was founded by Florentine Ariosto Jones, a Bostonian watchmaker, (Got to give a little hometown love to Mr. Jones). Before heading to Switzerland, Jones served as deputy director at the E. Howard Watch and Clock Company. In 1868, he made the move to the Rhine with an ambitious idea to combine American industrial production methods with Swiss technical expertise. By 1875, IWC had established its headquarters in Schaffhausen and grown to nearly 200 employees.
From there, the story unfolds in a way that feels almost improbable. Ownership passed to Johannes Rauschenbach Vogel in 1880, and then after his untimely death to his son, Johannes Rauschenbach Schenk, who helped push the company forward with early innovations like “digital time displays” in the 1880s. By 1889, IWC was already experimenting with wristwatches, adapting small pocket watch movements into cases fitted with lugs well before the format became standard.
The early 20th century only deepens the narrative. In 1903, Emma Rauschenbach married Dr. Carl Jung, (Yes, the Carl Jung), while her sister Bertha married industrialist Ernst Jakob Homberger, connections that would shape the company’s future ownership. By 1915, IWC was developing calibers specifically for wristwatches, and by 1929, Homberger had assumed full control.
Then come the greatest hits.
The first purpose-built pilot’s watch arrived in 1936. The Portugieser followed in 1939, born from a request by Portuguese importers for wristwatches with pocket watch precision. The Big Pilot emerged in 1940. In the 1940s, under technical director Albert Pellaton, IWC made major strides in engineering, including the now famous Pellaton winding system and advancements in anti magnetism.
The second half of the century is just as consequential. The Aquatimer arrived in 1967. IWC participated in the development of the Beta 21 quartz movement in 1969 to combat “The Crises.” The Ingenieur ref. 1832, designed by Gérald Genta, landed in 1976. In 1985, Kurt Klaus introduced the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Chronograph, a watch that redefines usability of perpetual calendars with a brilliantly simple crown adjusted system.
And that, more or less, brings us to today.
IWC has been a constant in watchmaking for over 150 years, innovative, technically serious, and capable of real design range. Yet it often feels like a brand discussed in fragments rather than as a whole. This High and Low is not about rediscovering IWC so much as seeing it clearly again, because beneath the familiar names is a catalog still full of watches worth paying attention to.
The Low: IWC Portofino 40mm Ref. IW356517
When you go onto IWC’s website and look up the Portofino collection, the first thing you are greeted with is a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A pilot (who flew recon missions in an unarmed P-38 Lightning), and of course the mind behind The Little Prince. It is a reference that feels very on-brand for IWC, but also one that has oddly threaded its way through watch culture more broadly. Beyond IWC’s own Little Prince editions, it is the same book that gave its name to the bar where Ben Clymer and John Mayer sat down for the first Talking Watches, a place that has since burned down.
The quote reads, “Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.” For the Portofino, it is about as direct a mission statement as you can get.
Everything about the collection is built around that idea. Remove what is unnecessary, keep what matters, and let proportion and clarity do the work.
The Portofino line traces back to IWC’s earlier approach to simple, time-only watches. In the mid-20th century, the brand built its reputation on clean, highly legible designs powered by reliable movements like the Caliber 89. These were straightforward watches, focused on function, proportion, and clarity rather than decoration.
In the decades that followed, IWC periodically returned to that idea of restraint. One notable step came in the 1970s, when the brand experimented with designs inspired by pocket watches. These pieces featured Roman numerals, slim hands, and balanced dials, reinforcing a direction that prioritized traditional aesthetics.
The modern Portofino collection formally took shape in the 1980s. At a time when the industry was still feeling the effects of the quartz crisis, IWC introduced a line that leaned into classic watchmaking rather than competing on technology. Early models, including the oversized ref. 5251, established the foundation with round cases, simple dials, and a focus on proportion.
Over time, the Portofino evolved in size and configuration but stayed consistent in its design approach. Case diameters increased as market preferences shifted, moving from mid-30mm references into the 38mm and 40mm range that defines the collection today. Across all iterations, the core elements remained the same: clean dials, traditional markers, and an emphasis on wearability over statement.
The IWC Portofino Automatic IW356517 is a 40mm stainless steel watch built around a simple, time-and-date layout. The silver-plated dial uses a mix of Roman numerals and stick markers, paired with gold-toned hands for contrast. The layout is balanced and easy to read, with a date window at three o’clock and central seconds.
Inside is a self-winding automatic movement with a 42-hour power reserve, housed in a case just 9.2mm thick. A convex sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides improves legibility, and water resistance is rated to 30 meters.
This watch is not trying to be the most technical or the most recognizable watch they make. It is far from loud and I would describe it as about as straightforward, well-executed dress watch that reflects the same design principles the brand has returned to for decades.
Priced at $5,200 for more information visit The 1916 Company.
The High: The Portugieser Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph Ref. IW394007
The Portugieser is one of those watches that feels inevitable now, but it started as a bit of an outlier. In the late 1930s, two Portuguese importers approached IWC with a simple request: build a wristwatch that could match the accuracy of a pocket watch. At the time, that meant using a large pocket watch movement inside a wristwatch case. Not exactly revelatory, but not the most common either. The first reference, introduced in 1939, measured over 41mm at a time when most watches were closer to 30mm. To put this in simpler terms, it was huge.
What came out of that decision set the template for the entire line. A wide, open dial, slim bezel, Arabic numerals, leaf hands, and a clear focus on legibility. It was less about style and more about function, borrowing heavily from marine chronometers and deck watches. At the time, it did not sell particularly well, not exactly shocking either.
The collection went quiet for a while before being revived in the 1990s, where it quickly became one of IWC’s core families. From there, the Portugieser expanded into chronographs, perpetual calendars, and high complications, but the underlying design never really changed. Even as the watches became more complex, they kept that same open dial layout and sense of balance that defined the original.
That brings us to this watch.
The Portugieser Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph is essentially the Portugieser pushed to its upper limit. This reference combines three major complications into a single layout. You have a flying tourbillon at six o’clock, a retrograde date at nine o’clock, and a chronograph.
The case comes in stainless steel at 43.5mm, which sounds large but fits within the historical context of the Portugieser. The dial stays consistent with the collection’s design language, and silver-plated with applied numerals.
Inside is where things get more interesting. This watch is built off IWC’s 89xxx family of chronograph movements, a platform that started with the calibre 89360 in 2007, the first fully in-house chronograph developed in Schaffhausen. One of its defining features is the combined hour and minute totalizer at 12 o’clock, designed to make elapsed time as easy to read as the current time.
It is a modular philosophy in a sense, but executed at a high level, allowing IWC to layer complications without completely redesigning the base chronograph system each time.
It is also worth noting that a boutique edition of this watch, produced in 18k Armor Gold, was nominated for a Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève award. Same watch, different metal, but it speaks to how seriously this configuration was taken from a watchmaking perspective.
This is not a subtle watch. It is a demonstration of what happens when you take a design originally built around simplicity and push it as far as it can go without completely breaking it. And somehow, it still holds together.
Priced at $174,000 for more information visit The 1916 Company.