IWC Portuguese Antithesis

Although some Portuguese models with complications have been made, the essence of the Portuguese watch –the original Portugieser-- was the idea underlying it. First and foremost, it was a large watch. Its size was because of its pocket watch heritage. It was a classic watch.

Until 1970s, the entire watchmaking tradition of IWC involved making non-complicated wristwatches. In a calculated gamble to revive mechanical watchmaking in a quartz-watch era, the late Günter Blümlein –IWC’s legendary boss— encouraged Kurt Klaus, IWC's renowned watchmaker, to develop a new perpetual calendar movement. IWC had never made its own perpetual calendar. If successful, such a watch would be a real move forward in an industry that was then gasping for air.

Kurt Klaus developed IWC’s perpetual calendar wristwatch. Introduced in 1985 in the Da Vinci and Ingenieur models, the movement was extraordinary. Unlike anything else at the time or preceding it, all functions were integrated and the calendar was set simply through the crown. There was more, too, than the hours, minutes and seconds, plus the month, day and date. There was also the year –and not just the last two digits of the year but the century as well. And there was a moonphase –and not just a traditional moonphase with an accuracy of one day’s error in 33 months, but a then unprecedented accuracy of one day’s error once in 126 years.

The Da Vinci model, in particular, may have done more to change the culture than any other watch over the past two decades, not just for IWC but the entire Swiss watchmaking industry. It revived an entire interest in mechanical watchmaking. It created a renaissance of interest in complications and especially perpetual calendars. Although statistics may be unavailable, it has been claimed that IWC has now produced more perpetual calendar wristwatches than the rest of the Swiss watchmaking industry. Regardless of the precise numbers, there is no doubt of the absolute significance of this complication by IWC.

From http://www.iwcforum.com/Articles/2003/PortuguesePCtext.html