Fresh from the Showcase here at SwissWatchExpo. We're going into another series of IWC.
Previously, we talked about the Bauhaus design and the influence, the German influence on different
watches, from Glashutte to IWC. And today we're also going to continue that idea along with
the Portugieser and the Portofino watches. Now, previously, I talked about the Ingenieur.
So these are interesting only because they're very simplistic in nature. And a lot of people get
bogged down in details about, Oh, what movement does the watch have? And this and that. And I just
don't do that. And the reason I don't is because I like folks to be interested more in the overall
design of the watch and the characteristics of the watch rather than the movement of the watch.
Movements are pretty much durable all across the board. You're going to get
very similar results out of all the movements and people get bogged down in a lot of details.
And there's some really fascinating technical details for sure.
I don't like to talk about that because that takes away from the beauty of the actual watch and the
body of the watch itself. For example, when you look at this particular gold Portofino,
this watch has one of the most simplistic designs within the IWC family. Now it's a
40 millimeter watch. Sometimes you can get them in 38 millimeter, you can get them
in various sizes in the Portofino range, but the most common of course is the 40 millimeter
Portofino. Now, this is important because the design influences a couple of different things.
This is an American stopwatch design. So the original design of the Portofino
was an American that the American that started IWC in the 1800s, in the mid 1800s and 1860s.
And he brought the idea of the pocket watch to Schaffhausen.
And so that's what they originally manufactured. Eventually of course men
started wearing wristwatches, but not until after women started wearing wristwatches
meaning the original watches that men wore were very, very small in comparison today's
pieces. So when you see a lot of vintage pieces that are on men's wrists in previous like films
and photos and things like that, maybe from the early 19 hundreds, you'll notice, wow,
the watches that they were wearing were really small, especially compared to what people wear
today. Of course, people were just overall smaller then, too. They weren't as tall and they weren't
as large. So a lot of different designs have taken place throughout the years and watches have just
continued to get larger, but that doesn't take away from the elegance of pieces that are smaller.
Now with the IWC, when it became a wristwatch, basically what they did was they took the idea
of a pocket watch and they welded lugs on the either end of a pocket watch.
And that's how they came up with the design. This is no different. This particular Portofino has,
if you took the lugs away and you turn the watch on its side, it would look like a pocket watch
without any question, but there's a little bit more simplicity that happens because you can
have a lot of intricate details within the dial. And this watch doesn't have a whole
lot of intricate details splattered across the dial. It's very clean. It's very simplistic.
It has applied markers. And of course this watch has solid gold through the case and
the bracelet. That's also something that you don't see very often within the Portofino line.
Typically you see it in stainless steel. So you have a small complication of the date. That's very
clear and easy to read, which is important to a lot of folks, a lot of dates on a lot of watches.
You just might as well, not even have it. And they're poorly placed. They there's, there's no
symmetry within the dial. This one has the date very well-placed, it's very clean. It mixes and
matches what the rest of the dial, if it was anywhere else, it would look terribly out of
place. The simplicity of the hands. They're just simply, they're not even sword hands
so much as they're just, they look almost identical to the stick markers on the dial.
When you get close up to the dial and you see all the little markers for the hours,
and then you compare them to the hands, they look very, very similar. So it's just a lot of symmetry
that goes on in this watch. There's some, there's a lot of symmetry that goes on in that, in that,
mesh style bracelet as well. The rolled links are all very, very clean and simplistic.
It almost looks like just a regular jewelry style bracelet. Of course, you can put this
on a strap as well. You can completely change its look, you can go with a little bit more
casual if this one's a little bit too flashy, this one represents an extremely amazing value.
For example, this watch is just $10,000 for all of this gold. This watch was more than $20,000 new.
So you're saving an absolute fortune when you buy a pre-owned watch. And there's absolutely nothing
about this watch that there's no dings or dents or scratches or any of those types of things buying
pre-owned on a piece like this is absolutely way to go. Now, when you get into the Portuguese
movements, I'm sorry, watches the movements get a little bit different because they're complicated.
They have these particular, Portuguese watches have the chronograph function in them.
And so a lot of watches that have chronograph functions in them. They have all kinds of things
going on. There's dials everywhere. There's date functions. IWC keeps this one very,
very simplistic because they arrange the two sub dials at the 12 and the six. And there is no date.
So when you look at this style, they have, it has applied, numbers, literal numbers,
instead of markers. It doesn't glow. It's not extraordinarily over complicated.
It's just a simple chronograph. And again, it goes the idea of being that simplistic German
Bauhaus design, but there's a lot of other little details that people may not notice
right away when they're looking at this watch. For example, when you look at the side of the case,
the edge of the bezel actually extends out from the case. That's not typical on any other watch.
You typically see as the, as the case comes up, you typically see where the bezel starts
moving in and it sort of squeezes into a round pattern and meets the crystal inside because
the dial of the watch is actually smaller than the overall case by a large margin.
There's a lot of wasted space with this particular piece. There's not a lot of wasted space.
You can actually see that, that edge of that bezel protrude out from the case.
And that's why when you look at the dial, even though this is not that large of a watch,
it appears a lot larger just because it takes up a lot more real estate. There's this really
interesting chapter ring that goes on the outside, around the dial as well, which is something that
a lot of chronographs have, but they're not usually visible. And unless you point them out,
people wouldn't even notice them, but on this, watch it, it pops right out in front of you.
These watches look absolutely amazing. Now this happens to be
a Laureus Sport for Food watch. And I love these because when these watches are first purchased,
there's a donation that goes to the foundation, Laureus Sport for Good, which goes to children all
around the world that are either underprivileged or have physical difficulties, that kind of thing.
And maybe they don't have the community support that they need to be able to
do sports in an organized fashion, or maybe they aren't, that maybe they don't have the physical
ability to do sports in an organized fashion like everybody else and their special needs
in terms of their physical requirements. Well, Laureus Sport for good make sure that they, the
foundation provides for everybody, whether they're underprivileged or just physically incapable,
uh, and they need to play sports in a different way. But this is interesting because they take,
they there's of all of the kids that are in the program,
the kids are asked to draw something. And then from a pile of all of those kids drawings,
one is chosen at random. So that it's fair. And then that picture is translated to the
case back of the Laureus Sport for Good foundation watches, which this one is.
This one happens to have a child sitting on the ground, playing ball with the dog.
It's probably the coolest one I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of different
versions of the vet case back. This is by far my favorite when I saw it, uh, it,
I really enjoyed it. So you can get a lot of really great things from the IWC designs.
Nobody else does that. And this is another version of that same watch, but you see
how very different they look because of the colors. They look extraordinarily different,
even though they're the same watch. So yeah, you can get a lot of different feel from these pieces.
This one happens to have a silver dial. Now, the reason that I chose this one is because
it's very confusing. A lot of people see this particular watch and they think the dial is white.
It's actually silver. They also think that the hands are black because in certain light,
the hands can appear black, but they see it in pictures
and the hands are intense blue. They're not that intense blue, unless you're in direct,
bright light. Now for this particular, for what we're doing here, I don't know if the,
blue is showing up as well on camera as it does in person, but this watch looks extraordinarily blue.
All of the applied numbers are blue that matched the hands. So don't get discouraged when you see
these watches because the photographs are, this is a very difficult watch to photograph and even
IWC through its own promotional ads showed this with a lot brighter hands than it actually has.
I can assure you that they're clearly blue in almost every bright light pattern,
but once the lights dim, they do take on a very dark view and they can almost look black.
So understand that when you buy this particular Portugieser
you're going to experience that sort of color change. Now this is another Portugieser. This is
an interesting hand wound piece. This one has gold hands and gold applied numbers with the
anthracite sub dial. Obviously, again, it's a silver dial, but it can appear white. It can
appear ivory in color. It can even have a little bit of a gray hue to it,
but this is a hand wound mechanical piece. In other words, you have to wind it every so often.
It's got a huge power reserve. So you don't, you won't be doing it as often as other watches.
This one has a few little in the tradition of the Bauhaus design, a few little sneaky things in it
that if you don't look closely, you'll miss them. For example, the 60 marker on the sub dial is red
and that doesn't immediately pop out until you look at it a little bit more closely.
Everything is extraordinarily high polished. There's nothing about this watch that doesn't
stand out, but it's not overt. It's not gaudy. It's not too rich. It's just right. And you can
literally wear it with anything. And of course you can get all the different straps for all
the IWC so you can change their personality at any time. But once again, that very simplistic German
Bauhaus design pops up in the, in the hand wound movement in the back. So the case back
of this watch is clear and you can see the hand wound movement in it. And this is also
a Bauhaus design movement. It's very simplistic in nature, but it's also very complicated in design.
So each one of the decorations on this is extraordinarily complicated and difficult to
manufacture. However, the way that it's laid out in the case back is very simplistic to look at.
It's very clear what you're looking at. It's aligned symmetrically, there's just a lot of
really cool things. Now, again, this watch is designed after a pocket watch movement. So when
you see this watch in this is an advanced design of something that IWC has been doing for over
a hundred years, and they incorporated a lot of those movement types into this particular watch.
So when you purchase these Portugiesers, and by the way, I just want to make clear
the three below the gold watch is the Portofino, everything else is a Portugieser. So if you have
more questions about what the difference between the Portofino is, and the Portugieser, please
give us a call, subscribe, ring the bell, email us. We'll answer all of your questions about all
the watches that we have. And remember that when you buy a pre-owned IWC, the value is incredible.
All the watches that we have here are in flawless condition. They're always serviced.
There's no scratches or dings and dents and things like that that you have to worry about,
and you get an incredible value in price with these watches.
So give us a call here at SwissWatchExpo, we'll be happy to help you get one in here.