Sehr Gut: A World Cup Champion and IWC Watches

Take that, Novak Djokovic! On Sunday, Germany bounced back in a big way from Roger Federer’s July 6, Wimbledon Waterloo. This Sunday started on a good note for German sports fans when three-time world time trial cycling champion Tony Martin won stage 9 of the Tour de France after a 94-mile break that averaged 25 miles per hour – solo!

Normally, this would have been colossal news in German sports media if not for the fact that everyone in the country besides Martin was fixated on the World Cup in Brazil. And das Dream Team went home happy. Needless to say, German sport has come a long way since Paul the psychic football octopus.

So, what do winners wear? If you’re German national team Manager Joachim “Jogi” Löw, you keep it Teutonic. Löw tallied every second of World Cup play on his personal IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph. While somewhat out of place on a football field, you can’t argue with results.

Yachting intent aside, IWC is a natural choice for Löw. As one of the few watchmakers in German-speaking northeast Switzerland, IWC has established a long tradition of technological innovation. From its early adoption of the wristwatch – the firm built its first in the nineteenth century – to 1980s engineering watches that could withstand industrial particle accelerator flux fields, IWC has steered a different course than the francophone cluster of the western “watch valley.”

Consider the Portuguese line favored by Löw. It was the original oversized men’s watch. But while other watchmakers jumped on the bandwagon in the late 90s and early Y2K era, IWC dropped its metal mammoth in 1939, when a 35mm was considered fit for a lumberjack. The company’s Portuguese importers insisted they could find a market, and the habitually open minds from Switzerland’s “East Side” took a chance. While the industry snickered, IWC designed a case expressly for a colossal pocket watch movement, and a classic was born. Today, the Portuguese remains a mainstay of the IWC lineup.

This IWC Portuguese – F.A. Jones Special Edition is emblematic of the company’s independent streak. Not simply a Portuguese with all the history this status entails, the F.A. Jones pays tribute to another IWC mark of distinction: the company’s American founder. The F.A Jones Special Edition recalls Boston watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones, who established IWC in 1868. While the francophone western Swiss rebuffed Jones’ entreaties, he forged a lasting partnership with the German-speakers of Schaffhausen.

The F.A. Jones Special Edition features an IWC Caliber 98290 pocket watch movement that is a direct descendant of the calibers designed by Jones himself. In fact, the movement provides direct links to the roots of the company and the Portuguese line itself. The original Portuguese model of 1939 housed repurposed IWC Caliber 74 pocket watch mechanisms. Later the Cal. 74 was revised and updated to become the Caliber 98. In a sequence that would boil a genealogist’s brain, the 98 became the 982, which became the 9828, which led to the 98290. There were others, to be sure.

No doubt, a football mastermind such as Germany’s Löw appreciates attention to detail, and the F.A. Jones has it in spades.

Realistically, the pocket watch calibers of twentieth century IWC bore little physical resemblance to their Jones-era ancestors. However, the watchmakers of Schaffhausen have taken pains to recreate the look and feel of these pioneers in the IWC Portuguese F.A. Jones. Eighteen-seventies hallmarks such as the three-quarter bridge and the elaborate engraved decoration have been employed to create an authentic aesthetic. Functionally, the signature “Jones Arrow” rate regulator is present and correct on the balance staff.

Other elements of traditional pocket watch construction are present in force. The use of gold chatons to seat and center the pivot jewels ads a golden halo to each ruby. The vast canvas of the pocket watch bridges and plates permits the application of decadent engraving, engine-turning, and rose-lathe geometries. Polished screw heads, “sunburst” radial grain on the crown and ratchet wheels, and circular grained going train wheels complete this image of alten Welt craft art.

This rose gold IWC Portuguese F.A. Jones Limited Edition is available through watchuwant.com with the original factory warranty and service booklet, original protective outer clam shell box, and its original display box. It’s one of only 1000 produced in the limited series issued to commemorate 140 years of the International Watch Company.

IWC designs its watches, calibers, and model lines to withstand the onslaught of years, passing fads, and occasional fist-pumping on the sidelines of professional sports. Just as championship flags fly forever, an IWC can become an enduring companion for its fortunate owner – especially if he’s also ein Weltmeister.