Copy IWC Automatic Watch, Luxury Watches IWC Automatic

IWC Big Ingenieur Platinum (IW5005-02)

Great for everyday and a nice transitional piece of jewelry for a formal occasion. Definetly a bargain!

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by alice larsen, From England Liverpool

IWC Portugieser Automatic 2000 Red Gold (IW5000-04)

and I am back for the gold...I love it, I have been looking for a new watch and I keep sending them all back but this one looks like a winner...thanks hsn!...Great Price too!

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by Paul Smith, From Republic Of Korea Suwon-si

IWC Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere White Gold (IW5042-07)

I wore the IWC Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere White Gold (IW5042-07) watch for a second time today. Was attending a luncheon and suddenly the watch fell off my arm. A pin had come out of a link. I am very dissapointed because it is very attractive and I really liked the look.

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by geraldine bart, From India Bolpur

"At this most important of our fundraising events, donations came to another impressive sum. The funds we generate ensure that we will be able to offer support in the future to important social projects like Laureus Girls in Sport, Laureus Street Soccer or our programme for the integration of young people with disabilities," said Evelyn Fankhauser, General Manager of the Laureus Foundation Switzerland.

As part of the ninth Laureus Charity Night which took place on the 22nd of November in Zurich, 600 prominent figures from the worlds of sport, business, politics and show business collected donations totalling CHF 1.1 million. Among the items that went under the hammer were an exclusive Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere Retrograde Unique Piece Laureus Charity Night from IWC Schaffhausen (CHF 150,000) and a 1960 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL W21 (CHF 300,000). Many big names were invited to the exclusive gala evening. They included athletics legend Edwin Moses, triathlon world champion Jan Frodeno, racing cyclist Fabian Cancellara, football coach Roberto Di Matteo and American soul singer Aloe Blacc, who was also the evening's star turn.

The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation was founded in South Africa 15 years ago. In 2007, IWC and Mercedes-Benz Switzerland jointly set up the Laureus Foundation Switzerland. In the past few years, they have generated over CHF 10 million in donations. The charitable institution uses the power of sport to promote personal development and the integration of socially, economically or otherwise disadvantaged children and young people into society. Among other things, it also puts its ambas- sadors from the world of sport at the highest level into contact with young people to show them the possibilities for a brighter future.

From the four nominated films, the jury picked two winners: "Und morgen seid ihr tot" ("Tomorrow You'll Be Dead") and "Europe, She Loves". The presentation took place at the IWC gala dinner held as part of the 11th Zurich Film Festival, to which the Swiss luxury watch manu-facturer had invited some 200 VIP guests from the worlds of film, media, art, politics and commerce.

The sponsorship award set up by the Association for the Promotion of Film in Switzerland (Verein zur Filmförderung in der Schweiz) is worth CHF 100,000 and is intended to give specifically designed support to promising film projects which are in the production or post-production stages. The two winning projects were also each pre- sented with an IWC watch - the Portuguese Automatic in stainless steel with a black dial and a special rotor engraving with "1st Filmmaker Award Zurich 2015" (Ref. IW500703).

For director Marc Forster, who was also a member of the jury, the Filmmaker Award represents a real milestone for the domestic film industry. "By specifically backing projects in the pre- or post-production stages, we are making an important contribution to the promotion and funding of films," he explained. The award was set up by the Association for the Promotion of Film in Switzerland, a non- profit organisation founded last December by Marc Forster, IWC CEO Georges Kern, the co-directors of the Zurich Film Festival Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, and the CEO of Ringier, Marc Walder.

IWC took on responsibilities as a co-partner of the Zurich Film Festival for the second time. The Swiss luxury watch manufacturer had also set the stage for a very special highlight during the festival: under the heading IWC Schaffhausen Talks To", selected guests of the Zurich Summit had a chance to listen to in-depth conversations with two world stars of cinema, Marc Forster and Christoph Waltz.

Hardly any other watch from Schaffhausen is as well known as the Portuguese Automatic: thanks to its classic, balanced design and 7-day power reserve it has come to epitomize the Portuguese line.

To mark the watch family's 75th anniversary in 2015, the Portuguese Automatic has been equipped with the newly developed IWC-manufactured 52010 calibre and optimized strap horns. The dial remains unchanged: the simple railwaytrack-style chapter ring, the appliqued Arabic numerals, the slender feuille hands: for three-quarters of a century, these have been the design cues that have made the Portuguese unmistakable. The guilloche subdials for the small seconds on the left and the power reserve display on the right are the same colour as the dial and as unobtrusive as the date display at "6 o'clock".

The polished lugs, the bezel and the case back encircling the transparent back cover all gleam while the sides of the case are satin-finished.
From the rear of the watch, the lightly curved lugs and the strap horns shaped to fit the case are clearly recognizable.

Thanks to its ceramic components, the self-winding mechanism of new IWC-manufactured 52010 movement is practically wear-free. With two barrels instead of just one, it has a 7-day power reserve. The bidirectional Pellaton winding system has been further improved: the pawls, automatic wheel and rotor bearing are now made of ceramic, giving the mechanism a special status in modern watchmaking technology. The white-or-black-coloured zirconium oxide reduces abrasion to virtually zero. The indexless balance has an increased frequency of 4 hertz (28,800 beats per hour). Combined with the Breguet spring, this guarantees even greater precision.

The Portuguese Automatic is water-resistant to 3 bar and available in two 18-carat red gold - with silver-plated or slate-coloured dials - and three stainless-steel versions - with black or silver-plated dials. It is supplied with a dark brown or black alligator leather strap which complements the dials.

For a brand that already has its own high-end in-house movement production, the move towards producing base calibres in-house is an unusual one. Although supplies risk becoming scarcer in future, alternative suppliers are gradually improving the reliability of their movement s- one of the main requirements of these so-called "tractor" calibres. Why then go through the laborious process of duplicating all this work in-house? Not just once, but twice, as IWC reveals late-stage prototypes of its new 69000 and 42000 calibres in Geneva this week.

For Stefan Ihnen, Head of Research and Development, IWC, it is simply a question of choice, even if that choice involves considerable investment and long-term development work. "In terms of the meaning of "manufacture", the watches in which our 52 calibre movements are used are all above 10,000 Swiss francs, so this is clearly the "manufacture" segment," he explains. "These two new movements don't have the free hairspring or the Pellaton winding system, for example. They are very close to what you can get from ETA or Sellita but our strategy is to at least give us the choice between such external movements and an in-house option, which we did not have in the past."

With reliability being the main concern, testing the prototypes of the new 42000 and 69000 calibres alone is not enough. The entire semi-automated assembly line for these movements has also been tested in the development laboratories and will be disassembled piece by piece before being reassembled in the workshops in Schaffhausen where the new calibres will be assembled. Around 100 prototype movements have already been produced as part of this testing procedure, with 100 more set to follow in a second phase. "Of the next series of 100 prototypes, about 20 will be tested on the wrist and the rest will go into a 500-hour test. This will simulate wearing conditions," says Mr Ihnen.

But when the switch to production comes, the quantities involved will be thousands, not hundreds, which is why the quality and reliability has to be spot-on. "The ideal is that when we go into series production we are already reliable," explains Stefan Ihnen, "and we won't face any problems. We are looking at models such as the Aquatimer and the Pilot's watches, for example, which come in quite huge volumes. So when you take this step of switching to the new movement it's a big one and it has to be reliable."

Another thing that will set the new calibres apart from their competitors is their finish. In keeping with the philosophy of IWC's American founder, Florentine Ariosto Jones, who sought to industrialise watchmaking, these new calibres will have a different aesthetic from those produced in Grenchen or La Chaux-de-Fonds. "We have our own decorations and touches such as the gold oscillating mass and the blued screws, but we are coming from an industrial background," Mr Ihnen explains. "Our founder already had this idea of industrialising watch production so it's not a problem for us if our movements have some of this industrial character. The minute attention to detail that some brands lavish on their movements is not the main focus for us, it's more about robustness and reliability. This is in the heritage of IWC and I think if we did more decoration and finishing it could be too much."
 

WORLDTEMPUS - 2 September 2011
With the brand-new Siderale Scafusia, it can well be said that IWC is celebrating the phenomenon of time.
This company generally known for its ultra-reliable pilot-style chronographs yesterday introduced its most complicated timepiece to date. Not only did IWC's astute engineering team complete the mechanics within the extraordinary space of ten years, but the company wisely involved a cerebral research professor of astrophysics and cosmology to provide a soul for the mechanically beating - and jumping - heart of this masterpiece.
Professor Ben Moore is the savant in question. Occupying the same chair at the University of Zurich's Institute for Theoretical Physics that Albert Einstein did in the early 1900s, this modern-day explorer of time and space provided the astronomical knowledge needed to complete the personalized celestial charts found on the backside of the Siderale Scafusia. This "soul" side of the watch also includes scales encircling the star charts providing information on the date and year (perpetual calendar), the "star" (sidereal) time that is also shown on the front of the watch within a small subdial fittingly found right at 12 o'clock as well as daylight savings time. Moore brought more to the table than just his tables: he adds a quirky theoretical element that not only explains the raison d'être of sidereal time - astronomers need to use it in their work - but also combines the studies of astronomy, cosmology and astrophysics to form very tangible questions that lurk in the back of nearly every human being's mind: where did we come from and where are we going?
Heart and soul
If the sidereal elements are the Siderale Scafusia's soul, then its exceptional caged escapement in the form of a tourbillon is certainly its beating heart. The original premise of this timepiece at its conception in 2001, a brand-new constant force tourbillon dominates the left side of the timepiece's dial. Its central element is an unusually large 13 mm balance wheel, making it awfully stable, which fits neatly into the 15.8 mm tourbillon cage. The remontoir providing constant force comprises a couple of extra parts, none of which are the usual simple spring found in a remontoir. Here, two bridges, a lever, and an unusual wheel IWC calls the "stop wheel" perform the service.
Perhaps most eye-catching of all, however, is the jumping - almost deadbeat - motion of the entire cage and its contents, which also move the small second hand attached to the top of the cage's bridge. This jumping motion is really a "stop and go" because the remontoir takes the escapement and tourbillon out of the direct flow of energy. The energy gets stored up in the remontoir temporarily and is released precisely once a second. This keeps the energy constant and provides the source of the attractive motion of the cage.
Additionally, the constant force tourbillon contains two components that have never been used in this fashion before. Created by Microworks of Germany, which is the commercial outlet of the KIT Forschungszentrum of Karlsruhe, a cam used in the constant force assembly is made of LIGA-processed nickel-cobalt. Perhaps even more impressive, the pallet lever and fork of the escapement is created as one piece in LIGA hard gold.
"We need very precisely manufactured components for this," said Thomas Gäumann, IWC's R&D department head for movements. "For this reason we utilize two components created by the x-ray LIGA process, which can be manufactured within tolerances of just a few thousandths of a millimeter."

Twilight time
In addition to the time, sidereal time, star chart and perpetual calendar, this timepiece also displays the times of sunrise, sunset, and twilight - the latter an important feature for astronomers, and here depicted by the celestial chart changing color along with the real-time changes happening in the sky. This is accomplished with the use of colored, transparent disks.
A classic IWC Portuguese from the front, it measures a very wearable 46 mm in diameter. Product group manager Mario Klein explained that the case height of 17.5 mm was the deliberate result of bringing the Siderale Scafusia's balled complication down to a wearable critical mass. A feat of engineering, the Siderale Scafusia also boasts easy operation of all displays using the crown and two recessed pushers. Hand-wound Caliber 94900 boasts 96 hours (4 days) of power reserve, during the first two of which Klein guarantees constant force.
At a price of 750,000 Swiss francs, board of director spokesman Hannes Pantli only expects to sell these masterpieces to dedicated collectors, and they will only be completed upon order. Once the connoisseur in question has ordered his or her very own Siderale Scafusia, he or she can expect to wait a full year to receive it. However, upon receiving it, it will not only be personally handed over by Pantli, but it will also have been customized to the individual wishes of the client, who can choose from more than 200 design options.
With the introduction of the Siderale Scafusia, IWC celebrates both its powerful place within the watch industry and life itself. As astrophysicist Moore explains, astronomy has shown that we came from nothing billions of years ago and a billion years from now we will return right to nothing. The Siderale Scafusia and Moore therefore project one single message: Carpe Diem.

Paranal, Chile, 27 August 2011 - Today, in the middle of the Atacama Desert in Chile, IWC Schaffhausen presented a technological masterpiece of Haute Horlogerie to journalists from all over the world.
After ten years of intensive research, the Swiss watch manufacturer has succeeded in uniting solar time with sidereal time, together with astronomical displays, in a single watch. The result is a fascinating universal work of art which comes with a wealth of surprising complications and new technical features. The Portuguese Siderale Scafusia is the most complex timepiece ever created by IWC.

PHOTO GALLERY

"With a history already stretching back over 140 years, IWC sets a new benchmark with this watch," says Georges Kern, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. "The development of the Portuguese Siderale Scafusia was an exciting challenge for everyone involved and called for enormous commitment and interdisciplinary cooperation. It is an unparalleled distillation of pioneering work, craftsmanship, engineering and exclusivity. The result is overwhelming and fills us with immense pride." Reason enough, then, to invite media professionals from all over the world to the unveiling of the new star in IWC's firmament at a venue just as unusual as the watch itself: at Paranal, in the middle of the Chilean desert. Paranal, built and operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), hosts the Very Large Telescope, the flagship of European astronomy and the most advanced optical instrument of its kind. The Portuguese Siderale Scafusia was designed to bring together astronomical displays and to show them with absolute precision. The most conspicuous feature of this new and highly complex timepiece is the constant-force tourbillon, which dominates the dial. But the reverse side of the watch is no less impressive. Neatly packed into the tiny space are a celestial chart, horizon, geographical coordinates, solar time, sidereal time, sunrise and sunset display as well as a display showing daytime, night-time and twilight. And behind the display showing the number of day, of course, is a completely integrated perpetual calendar. While the astronomers on Mount Paranal used their gigantic telescopes to probe billions of light years into the universe, journalists from all over the world gathered at the Residencia - home to approximately 150 scientists working with ESO - to learn all about the history and development of the Portuguese Siderale Scafusia. No wonder IWC decided to premiere this watchmaking milestone in such unusual surroundings: after all, ESO's world-leading astronomical research facilities located here provide nightly views of deepest space which no human eye has ever seen before.

Two ways to measure time on a single watch
Here on earth, our time is based on the length of the average solar day; but for observation of the stars, the factor that counts is the sidereal day, from the Latin sidus, for star. The two types of day, however, differ in length. The average solar day lasts exactly 24 hours and measures the average time between the sun's passage over a given meridian. The reference for a sidereal day is an infinitely distant star, which is exactly perpendicular to the observation point at the beginning and the end of the period during which it is observed. It therefore measures the time taken for the earth to complete a rotation around its own axis. And because the earth not only turns around its own axis but also describes an arc around the sun, a sidereal day is about four minutes shorter than an average solar day. The 24-hour display located at the "12 o'clock" position on the dial has hour and minute hands, which show sidereal time with breathtaking accuracy. The train created by IWC's engineers tracks sidereal time with such precision that it deviates by a maximum of just 11.5 seconds in the course of an entire year: yet another example of technological achievement at its best from Schaffhausen.
—The current time of day (or average solar time) is shown on a classical 12-hour display with central hour and minute hands. The seconds hand is mounted on the titanium cage of the tourbillon at "9 o'clock" and advances in one-second intervals in constant power mode.

An impressive tourbillon

Thanks to the Portuguese Siderale Scafusia, it is now possible to see two different methods of measuring time side by side on a single watch. Average solar time - in other words the scale against which we measure the course of our daily lives - is displayed on the central hour and minute hands. The seconds are shown by a tourbillon mounted on a ball bearing at the "9 o'clock" position. Taking up almost a quarter of the entire bottom plate, the tourbillon is impressive for its sheer size alone. But the connoisseur will take even greater pleasure in the unusual design: it features a constant power mechanism, which compensates for the continuous depletion of energy in the barrels and transmits a steady trickle of energy to the balance. This boosts the precision of the newly designed hand-wound 94900 calibre to an even higher level. Two barrels aligned in parallel guarantee a minimum of two days' constant power. All this time, the seconds hand mounted on the titanium cage of the tourbillon advances in one-second intervals. Throughout the remaining time of the four-day power reserve, the tourbillon continues to run evenly, following the rhythm of the balance, which oscillates at the rate of 2.5 hertz, or 18,000 beats per hour.

A celestial chart of a special kind
The Portuguese Siderale Scafusia is not only an impressive sight from the front, but also from the reverse side, with its imprinted night sky and perpetual calendar. The calendar is shown in the form of a circular cut-out and counts the days of the year continuously: the 1st of January is day 1, the 31st of December day 365; or, in the case of a leap year - indicated by the letters LY, number 366. This is joined, on the edge of the case back, by a further display that shows the current time of day, the sidereal time as well as sunrise and sunset with arrows in a 24-hour rhythm. Finally, at the centre, is the night sky. The horizon, engraved in yellow, shows the night sky as the owner himself sees it at a location of his choice. IWC's engineers use the coordinates of the individual location to calculate the angle of the horizon and then machine the cams which control the sunrise and sunset display. This means that the customer is not only the owner of an extraordinary watch but also has his own personalized constellation showing the night sky at the geographical position of his choosing. Also linked to this is the background formed by the night sky, which has a polarization filter that makes it appear grey by day and blue by night.
—The first thing that strikes the viewer is the centrally positioned celestial chart which, thanks to a polarization filter, appears grey during the day and blue at night. The yellow horizon line is individually calculated for a location specified by the watch's owner.

Every watch is unique
For all its precision and attention to detail, the Portuguese Siderale Scafusia is eminently suitable for everyday use. It is water-resistant to 3 bar and, considering that the mechanism is so delicate, astonishingly impervious to shocks. A winder designed specially for the Portuguese Siderale Scafusia ensures that this masterpiece from Schaffhausen continues to show precise times even if the owner chooses not to wear it for a prolonged period. As you might expect, the watch is also accompanied by a magnifying glass to facilitate precise examination of the night sky on the watch as well as comprehensive astronomical documentation. Every Portuguese Siderale Scafusia is unique because, apart from the personal celestial chart on the back cover, the customer can also choose from a wide range of case materials and dial designs, as well as the colour and material of the wristband. In view of the degree of customization and the complexity of the design and mechanism this involves, buyers will have to wait approximately one year for delivery. But as we said: special features require time.

One of watchmaking's genuine legends of the last century from IWC Schaffhausen is now back in a new guise: the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph introduces a sportingly elegant note into the Portuguese family for the first time, with an IWC-manufactured chronograph movement and technical features that are quite impressive.
Times change. And so do boats, to invoke a maritime image: if the model under the Yacht Club name - the most successful IWC of the 1960s and 70s - was a sturdy craft on the river of time, then the new Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph has rather more of an elegant racing yacht about it. And, as we know, the demands placed on the equipment are nowhere so high as when navigating on the high seas.
The legendary name of this unpretentious watch with its automatic winding system and its movement spring-mounted in the case is back. And yet the Yacht Club for the third millennium does not mimic the past in any way. This is clear from a first glimpse of the new Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph.
This new creation - a chronograph with the wellestablished IWC-manufactured 89360-calibre movement - is an elegant sports watch and embodies the best technical ingredients. This makes it a reliable timepiece whose functionality is beyond reproach and in which every detail, however minor, has been optimized. Not least, it is also a nautical precision instrument, because it will not let its owner down, even when sailing in rough seas.
The Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph is the most sporting watch in the rich tradition of its family history that goes back more than seventy years, and as such it is water-resistant to 6 bar and is equipped with a screw-in crown and a crown protection. Its chronograph permits the recording of aggregate times of up to twelve hours on the common counter for the minutes and hours and can be reset to zero via the flyback function at any time while running, so that it is instantly ready to start measuring a new time. There are many ways of measuring long stop times. Yet none are as convenient and unambiguous as those provided by the analogue display of the 89360 calibre: these can be read like a normal time display. In addition, the movement with its integral chronograph is designed in such a way that the measurement of even long stop times does not lead to fluctuations in amplitude and associated inaccuracy. The signal red centre stopwatch hand in effect also plays a central role. Together with the supplementary flange for seconds and fractions of a second, it allows extremely accurate short-interval timing.
In terms of functionality, the dial appeals with its clear railway track-style chapter ring and - for the first time in the Portuguese family - with luminescent indices and hands. It also incorporates date and small seconds displays. In spite of its sporting characteristics, the new Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph represents a Portuguese that is true to type with its consummately neat dial and Arabic numerals.

The Yacht Club is reporting back for duty in a remarkable way after an absence of around a quarter of a century. It is available as the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph in three variants: in steel with a silver-plated dial, rhodium-plated luminescent hands and appliques. Again in steel with a black dial, silver-plated flange and rhodium- plated hands and appliques, also luminescent. The most refined model in 18 carat red gold has an slate-coloured dial with a sun pattern ground finish, subtly contrasted by the black small seconds display circle and the black ring for the aggregate minutes of the chronograph. This model is distinguished additionally by gold-plated hands and solid red gold appliques.
All three variants are worn on a black rubber strap with a folding clasp. And during those hours of total calm on board, far out to sea, a glance through the sapphire-glass back at the IWC-manufactured movement with IWC's double-pawl winding even brings the yachtsman a little distraction…