INTRODUCING: The IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar
The International Watch Company (IWC) has long been a pioneer of new technologies and complications within the Swiss watch community. Their tireless devotion to engineering and innovation is largely thanks to the legacy of their former engineer extraordinaire Kurt Klaus, who believed that innovation was the true key to producing popular wristwatches. In 1985, Kurt Klaus introduced the world to his revolutionary modulated perpetual chronograph in the form of the IWC Davinci Perpetual Calendar. Klaus would go on to implement his Perpetual Calendar into more and more advanced movements, eventually including a grande complications piece made in limited quantities. Since that initial release, IWC has been an industry leader in complicated watchmaking, especially in the coveted calendar space. Collectors and the industry at large may not be able to wrap their heads around it, but IWC has just raised the bar for calendar watches, yet again, this time in the form of the new IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar.
THE BASICS:
BRAND: IWC Schaffhausen
Model: Portugieser Eternal Calendar
Case Material: Platinum
Case Size: 44mm
Water Resistance: 5 Bar (50 meters)
Movement: IWC Cal. 52640
Movement Specs: 7 day power reserve, perpetual calendar, patented Pellaton winding system, self winding
Strap Options: Alligator leather by Santoni
THE JUICE:
As the name suggests, this watch was designed to quite literally last forever. If kept wound, it would not require adjustment for thousands of year - that is no exaggeration. All perpetual calendars can recognize leap years, and thus can accurately mark the difference between February 28th and 29th. However, there are exceptional years that should be leap years, but are not - these are years that initiate a new century, so 2100, 2200, 2300, etc. The average perpetual believes that these are leap years and thus require adjustment at that time - but this is not the average perpetual calendar. Thanks to a gear in the movement that completes a single rotation every 400 years, this watch can account for the anomalies that exist in the tracking of leap years.
Hyper-precision is the goal of every detail on this piece and the revolutionary new moonphase is no exception. IWC already has the most precise moonphase in the industry, allowing wearers to enjoy accuracy uninterrupted for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, hundreds of years will not suffice in the context of eternity. 45 million years on the other hand - that works. And that is what IWC has achieved here - a moonphase so accurate it will deviate only a single day every 45 million years. Engineers at IWC ran data models to the tune of 22 trillion combinations to find the gear ratios that would help them achieve this incredible feat. Leaving no stone unturned is just par for the course in Schaffhausen.
IWC has been a driver of innovation for decades now, but they have just miraculously outdone themselves. This watch is a true grail
So how much is the Portugieser Eternal Calendar?
Price for the watch will be available upon request.
Read more about the watch on the brands website here.