A week of reserve and a saucer for a case
By Priya Nair, Singapore ยท
168 hours. Put it down on a Monday and it's still running the following Monday. On a perpetual calendar, which you really don't want to stop, that's the most useful number on the spec sheet.
IWC's perpetual calendar mechanism goes back to Kurt Klaus in the 1980s, and its great trick is that everything advances together and can be set from the crown, no fiddly correctors and no little stylus. In the Portugieser, it sits on a clean silver dial with the moon phase, the calendar subdials and a seven-day power reserve indicator. Calibre 52616, automatic, open caseback, gold case, leather strap.
I love the dial. It's balanced in a way that most perpetuals aren't, and the gold case gives it a warmth the steel Royal Oak perpetual doesn't have.
I don't love the size. 44.4 mm across and 14.9 mm thick is enormous for a dress watch, and with only 30 m of water resistance, this is a dress watch. It will not go under a shirt cuff. It will barely go under a jacket sleeve. On my wrist it would look like a saucer.
Price is 38,000 to 43,000 dollars, which is less than half what AP asks for a steel perpetual. That's the strongest argument for it: a real perpetual calendar in gold with a week's reserve, from a house with deep experience in exactly this complication. The counterargument is resale, where IWC has historically lagged behind the big three.
For a broad-wristed man who wears suits, a fine choice. For me, no.