Living (Large) Legend: IWC Portuguese Automatic

• Men’s dress watches are making a modern comeback.

• Luxury Watch collectors know that classics of the genre like the IWC Portuguese never left the scene.

• The 42+mm Portuguese Automatic blends the best of late 1930’s style with modern size and tech.

• Enter the connoisseur’s club and vanguard of current style trends.

In case you haven’t noticed, men’s formal watches are making a comeback.

You see them in Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on the wrists of the most influential names in the public eye. It’s hard to say when the tide began to turn in favor of formal timepieces – dress watches – but the result has been a groundswell of tastemaker enthusiasm for the trend. While the sports watch’s three-decade reign as the luxury watch versatility leader is under no threat, a new power is rising.

Of course, those who follow the luxury watch scene knew this was coming. The true immortals of the dress watch sector never disappeared. Watches like this IWC Portuguese Automatic hail from time-tested lines that have buried more fads, fashions, and period style idioms than Madonna. The Portuguese, like its counterparts, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso and the Patek Philippe Calatrava, represents the watch world’s equivalent of Levi’s jeans; sharp never goes out of style.

IWC’s icon is in rude health and ready to take the new style paradigm by storm. The Portuguese Automatic is a compelling statement of its parent’s command of heritage – both aesthetic and mechanical.

The star of the show is the Portuguese’s dial. A silvered plate with premium details, it impresses at first glance and engrosses upon the second. Consider the collective impact of the vintage detailing; Schaffhausen, Switzerland’s craftsmen have a healthy respect for their history.

This dial reads from its cannon pinion to its outer outer track as a case study in retro done right. The early twentieth-century leaf hands are delicately tapered and optimally extended to the verge of the hour numerals and minute track.

While expansive and somewhat austere in the mode of an elegant pocket watch, the dial gains outstanding warmth and additional vintage vibe courtesy of extensive blued details. All hands, Arabic numerals, and hour indexes are blued and applied units; none of these are “printed” to the dial in the manner of corner-cutting competitors.

Look closely: the individual applied elements are carefully polished, rounded at their edges, and faceted in order to play with shifting light. IWC sweats the small stuff, and it holds up under close scrutiny.

At six o’clock, the cut of the date window aperture is softened with a small step that visually eases the transition from dial to date disc. Each of the sub-dials at three and nine o’clock are stepped at their edges to add layers of complexity to the silver span of the watch face. Additional articulation comes in the form of concentric circles of guilloché centered on each sub-dial hand.

The miniaturized “sector” chapter ring of the small seconds is a delightful echo of the larger version that encircles the hour track, and the small shock of red on the power reserve scale plays beautifully against the silver of the dial and blue hue of the hands.

Cohesion of the whole is just as important as the individual elements, and IWC gets this, too.

The “railroad” outer track visually unifies the dial and the case that envelops it. The art department at International Watch deftly transitions the discerning eye from the soft classicism of the dial to the masculine heft of the traditional oversized Portuguese case. When it debuted in 1939, the 43mm Portuguese packed a pocket watch movement, and contemporary opinion was divided – to say the least – over the “monstrous” proportions of the new IWC.

No more. The Portuguese Automatic, at 42mm, now stands as a paragon of the modern, masculine dress watch. In an era that has seen near-50mm sports watches become commonplace, dress watches have grown to keep pace.

But only the Portuguese anticipated this trend and “got it right” from day one. While competing manufacturers in the luxury watch sector have raced to stretch their vintage dress styles into contemporary containers with sometimes awkward results, only the Portuguese continues to sit comfortably in its own plus-sized skin. And that skin is gorgeous.

The stainless steel case of the Portuguese Automatic flows gracefully from the clever concave step of its bezel to the corresponding fade-away recess of the case back. In between these two polished layers, a brushed midsection breaks the sheer expanse of the case flanks and adds strong horizontal emphasis to the profile.

For such a massive dress watch, the Portuguese concedes nothing in elegance to its smaller rivals; the compound tumble-home of the taped lugs imparts an impression of grace from any angle.

Inside the comely case, IWC’s Caliber 51011 is a company original with one foot in the modern era, and one firmly anchored in Schaffhausen’s storied history. The modern angle comes in the form of a skeletonized winding rotor that bares large expanses of the movement for the owner’s viewing pleasure.

Further contemporary refinements include a seven day power reserve that ensures winding remains an occasional joy – not a constant chore.

Tradition dictates the use of two gold standards from watchmaking history. The IWC pawl-based bidirectional winding system was invented in-house by IWC’s watchmaking wizard Albert Pellaton in the late 1940s, and it roars into the 21st century in this application.

Still among the best in the business and copied shamelessly by everyone in Switzerland and his mother, only IWC can claim to have created it. Watching the twin roller jewels and pawls alternate between winding duties is half the fun of examining this caseback.

At the other end of the powertrain, a Breguet overcoil hairspring  – the industry standard for high-grade timepieces since the 18th century – keeps the escapement singing on key. While many other watchmakers have opted for the less demanding (and less costly) flat hairspring, IWC is legendary for cutting no corners when mechanical integrity is on the line.

On that note, watchuwant.com is pleased to offer this IWC Portuguese Automatic with its original factory box set, warranty card, IWC service network manual, and factory user’s manual.

Like the best of fashion in clothing, automobiles, and architecture, the IWC Portuguese Automatic embodies qualities that appeal in any age. Just as many of the best suit, car, and home styles will endure through generations, the Portuguese has outlived most of its rivals, many pretenders to good taste, and enjoyed the last laugh at its 1930s detractors.

Having buried generations of undersized rivals, the burly Portuguese proves that – with all due respect to figures of speech – living large is the best revenge.