At this year's SIHH, IWC introduced two famous Portuguese models in new guises. Both the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph and the Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde got makeovers, bringing them up to date and adding interesting details.
The Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph
This watch, which was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s, introduces a sporty el-egance into the current Portuguese family. Using an IWC-manufactured, double-pawl winding chronograph movement (Calibre 89360) spring-mounted in the case, the Yacht Club Chronograph adds a useful flyback feature, allowing the common chronograph counter for the minutes and hours to be reset to zero at any time while running.
The Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph comes in three 45.4mm variants: in steel with a silver-plated dial, rhodium-plated luminescent hands and appliqués; in steel with a black dial, silver-plated flange and rhodium-plated luminescent hands and appliquÉs; and in 18 carat red gold with a slate-coloured, sun-pattern ground finish dial with a black small seconds display circle and a black ring for the aggregate minutes of the chronograph, with gold-plated hands and solid red gold appliquÉs. All three versions come on a black rubber strap with a folding clasp.
The Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde
The Tourbillon Mystère has been in the IWC collection for many years, but this year the designers at IWC Schaffhausen have added a retrograde date display and extended the power reserve to seven-days.
The tourbillon of the Mystère appears to rotate unsupported at the 12 o’clock pos-ition, hence the MystÈre moniker. To this intriguing watch, a date indicator that flies back at the end of the month has been added. On reaching the end of any month with 31 days, the date indicator springs back automatically to ‘1’. In shorter months, or also if the watch has not been worn for some time, the date indicator can be advanced by the rapid adjustment function and flies back to the first day of the month.
In the previous model the tourbillon was embedded in a plate decorated with cylindrical grinding, while in the new Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde it is set in a ring that is mirror-finished on the inside, in which the parts of the escapement are reflected again.
This watch is available in a 500-piece limited edition in 18 carat red gold with solid gold appliquÉs and a silver-plated dial and a 250-piece limited edition in platinum with a ruthenium-black dial and rhodium-plated hands and indices.
Source: Europa Star December-January 2010 Magazine Issue
