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The legacy of the seafarers

IWC celebrates its legendary Portuguese watches in 2010

The Schaffhausen watch manufacturer IWC is celebrating one of its oldest-established watch families in 2010: the Portuguese watches enter their eighth decade. This will be the occasion for some fascinating novelties, such as the Portuguese Grande Complication, the Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde or the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph. These large format, mechanical precision instruments perpetuate the legacy of the famous seafarers to this day – and hand it down to today's explorers.

"Heroes of the sea, noble race…", runs the first line of the Portuguese national anthem. It is an expression of the collective memory, in which the great seafarers of Portugal are still very much alive to the present time – Vasco da Gama, Bartolomeu Dias or Fernando Magellan. And in 1934 Fernando Pessoa wrote his national epic "Mar Português – Portuguese Sea", a homage to the spirit of discovery and heroic courage of the seafarers who made Portugal's former international standing possible in the first place. Five years later, in 1939, IWC supplied the first Portuguese watches commissioned by two importers in Lisbon and Porto. These were oversized precision timepieces with pocket watch movements in the tradition of nautical instruments. They established a completely new type of watch in those days. Today these watches are a permanent feature of the horological identity of IWC and they are sought-after ambassadors of a watch culture at the highest level all over the world.

In 2010, the Portuguese watches from IWC are entering their eighth decade. They have remained entirely faithful to their historical heritage: clarity, size, accuracy and exquisite mechanics. Most of the complications from the Haute Horlogerie of IWC are present in this family of watches today. And there will be a few more in the "Year of the Portuguese", which the Schaffhausen manufacturer is dedicating to its classic model. The horological inventiveness, which finds stylish expression in case diameters from more than 40 to 45 millimetres, is impressive:

The Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph (Ref. 3902) not only revives the name of one of the most successful IWC watches of the last century. The new Yacht Club also introduces a generous pinch of sporting appeal into the Portuguese family – and in this way does justice to its legendary predecessor. It has been upgraded technically to make it the perfect companion for navigation and sailing: in the IWC-manufactured 89360-calibre movement, it has one of the most modern and robust chronograph movements on board – with a flyback function and analogue display of the long stop times via two hands on an inner dial. It is water-resistant to 6 bar and is the only Portuguese to have luminous hands and indices. Its large, clear dial makes it a perfect chronograph. It is available in steel with a black or silver-plated dial and in red gold with a slate-coloured dial and black registers.

Back to the roots: with this message the new Portuguese Hand-Wound (Ref. 5454) appeals to all those who are still fascinated by the original form and understatement of the Portuguese. And rightly so: in the IWC-manufactured 98295- calibre hand-wound movement it, too, has the technology of a classic pocket watch on board. Two variants in steel drawing closely on the original interpret the theme anew and with a breath of modernity: in the version with the black dial, this finds expression in a silver seconds scale with discreet red "60" marking. The model with a silver-plated dial differs from all the previous faces of the Portuguese watch through a grey counter for the small seconds and likewise red "60" marking.

After 30 years as an exclusive solitaire in the manufacturer's range, the Grande Complication now makes its début in the red gold Portuguese case – as the Portuguese Grande Complication (Ref. 3774). With more room inside the 45 millimetres case, and for the first time waterresistant to 3 bar, the beautiful sound from its minute repeating mechanism nevertheless remains unchanged. A discreetly engraved globe and gold appliqués decorate the silver-plated dial. True to the tradition of the Grande Complication, a limited edition of fifty watches per year is retained. A new engraving on the case back depicts a sextant and makes the affiliation with the Portuguese family obvious.

The coveted Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère in two new, limited series in platinum and red gold with the retrograde date display is enhanced by an additional horological refinement, which also appears in the name of this novelty: Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde (Ref. 5044). A date indicator with a flyback function at the end of the month has been integrated into this exceptional watch for the first time. The role of the seconds display is performed by the cage of the minute tourbillon.

The Portuguese Tourbillon Hand-Wound (Ref. 5447) with its reduced overall height and the minute tourbillon at "9 o'clock" has undergone a subtle and attractive facelift: the signature of the founder of the company, F.A. Jones, on the dial opposite the tourbillon is a reference to the factory movement of the 98900-calibre family, which is evocative of the design of the first Jones calibres. This horological gem in red gold with a black dial is limited to 500 watches.

No other time machine approaches as close to the ideal of a perfect navigational instrument in the infinite ocean of time as a perpetual calendar from IWC. This is particularly true of the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar (Ref. 5021) with its autonomous perpetual calendar, complete year display, countdown function to the next full moon and a two-hemisphere moon phase display, which shows the age of the moon for the northern and southern hemispheres with recordbreaking accuracy: with a deviation of only one day in 577 years. It is now available in warm red gold in the existing case size of 44.2 millimetres, and in a white gold case with a midnight blue dial. The Portuguese Perpetual Calendar (Ref. 5023) with the traditional display of the moon phase is now also being manufactured in the same case size, in red gold with a silver-plated dial and in white gold with a slate-coloured dial.

Since 2009, the Portuguese Minute Repeater (Ref. 5449) with the new IWC-manufactured 98950-calibre movement in hunter style has chimed out the time in the most delightful way. Since then, it has also had the small seconds at "6 o'clock". Each of the two variants in platinum and red gold is limited to 500 watches.

Occupying a position among the absolute classics of the watch family is the Portuguese Chronograph (Ref. 3714) with its 30-minutes counter and small seconds. This is very much a style icon, and its 40.9 millimetres case also makes it a good choice for male and female connoisseurs of normal sized watches. Since the end of 2009, it is also complemented by two variants in a red gold case, one with a slate coloured dial and black inner dials, and one with a silver-plated dial, both with solid red gold appliqués.

The Portuguese Automatic (Ref. 5001) with the large, IWC-manufactured 51011-calibre movement and seven-day power reserve has also undergone a facelift. This watch, too, in its 42.3 millimetres case, is now offered in red gold instead of rose gold and has solid red gold appliqués. The steel variant now features a silver-plated dial and rose gold-plated hands and appliqués.

The "Year of the Portuguese" at IWC has begun. It is an appreciation of exquisite watches, but above all the eternal idea behind them: namely that man, driven by the spirit of discovery, explored methods for finding his bearings in order to achieve his ambitious targets. And that he ultimately mustered up the courage and placed himself in the greatest danger, in order to fulfil his desires and ambitions. The Portuguese watches from IWC are a symbol and a distant echo of those epic deeds, which took place 500 years ago. They still embody the spirit of discovery of bygone days. Most of all, though, the Portuguese watches are instruments of the modern age – as an aid to our own navigation through time.

A revolution in navigation thanks to precision clocks

Marine navigation is thought to have originated approximately 6,000 years ago and was presumably first developed in India, Egypt and, for the Mediterranean, in the region of what today is Lebanon. We know that this timeframe saw the beginnings of celestial navigation, in other words, determining a course based on the sun, stars and their angle with respect to the horizon. Already in the 4th century B.C. there were regional maritime handbooks for the Mediterranean which listed the tides, harbours, etc. Starting in the 7th century, the Vikings were also outstanding navigators, who in addition to the methods known up until that time also incorporated observations of birds and ocean currents, and around the year 980 they sailed to Greenland and North America. A major navigational aid was later the compass, invented by the Chinese and first used for navigation on land. Later on, the Arabian people took the development of in particular astronomical measuring instruments far further and produced the first nautical charts.

In the 15th century, Henry the Navigator perfected these methods in the Portuguese school of maritime navigation at Sagres and had the most famous cartographers under contract. At this school, celestial navigation using the sun and the North Star were also refined. With these navigational aids, it was possible to determine the position of a ship along the lines of latitude with relative accuracy but not a course along lines of longitude. This only became feasible when John Harrison invented his marine chronometers (1735–1759). At roughly the same time, the sextant was invented for the exact measurement of angles. With the combination of celestial  navigation and exact time, which could be taken along from the home port with its known coordinates, it was possible for the first time to precisely determine a position at any location on earth.

John Harrison's groundbreaking invention of marine chronometers was triggered by a maritime catastrophe: during a storm on 22 October 1707, a fleet of the Royal Navy on the way from Gibraltar to its home port of Portsmouth was shattered upon the shoals of the Isles of Scilly due to an error in navigation. Some 1600 men died and only 26 survived. The helmsmen were not at fault – it simply was not possible to determine an exact position along lines of longitude with the means available at the time. All the other famous seafarers up to then, from Vasco da Gama to Columbus, faced the same problem: given an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South Pole, they could determine their position up and down that line relatively accurately but not their position to either side of the line.

With the Longitude Act, the British Parliament in 1714 offered a prize of the then unimaginably large sum of 20,000 pounds – by today's standards roughly two million euros – for anyone who could come up with a method of accurately determining a ship's position with a deviation of at most one-half a degree of longitude. Among those who heard about this offer was the self-educated clockmaker and carpenter John Harrison in northern England. Following multiple clock constructions of large dimensions, his "H4" was completed in 1759 in the form of an oversized pocket watch. It was not only sufficiently seaworthy, it also achieved the required accuracy: in an ocean voyage of 81 days to Jamaica and back (1761), it lost only five seconds. Even so, Harrison had to fight against his academic critics in the Board of Longitude for the promised prize money. In 1765 he received half of the 20,000 pounds. Only eight years later, after he had constructed the improved "H5" model and when King George III intervened on his behalf, did he receive a further 8,750 pounds. All of his clocks, from the "H1" to the "H5", can be viewed in operating condition in the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

Harrison 's precision clocks revolutionised marine navigation. Henceforth, besides the compass, sextant, charts and navigational handbooks, the time exact to the second, carried along in elaborately constructed marine chronometers, was among the most important aids on board. It was only through radio navigation in the 20th century based on taking directional readings from multiple radio signals, and starting in 1995 by determining position with the help of the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS), that navigation became simpler and even more precise. But the clock is, as ever before, the nautical symbol for the necessity of proceeding safely from a point of departure to a destination. Ocean travel has this to thank for its ascendancy.

Estimated price list of the IWC Portuguese SIHH 2010 models in US dollars:

IW377402 Portuguese Grand Complication red gold 5N, argenté 217'000

IW390202 Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph red gold 5N, ardoise dial 23'100

IW390204 Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph stainless steel with black dial 12'600

IW390206 Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph stainless steel with white dial 12'600

IW502121 Portuguese Perpetual Calendar Double Moon white gold, blue dial 39'300

IW502122 Portuguese Perpetual Calendar Double Moon red gold 5N, black dial 32'500

IW502303 Portuguese Perpetual Calendar Single Moon white gold, ardoise 38'800

IW502302 Portuguese Perpetual Calendar Single Moon red gold 5N, argenté 33'000

IW504401 Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde platinum rhutenium 124'000

IW504402 Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde red gold 5N, argenté 102'000

IW544705 Portuguese Tourbillon Hand-Wound red gold 5N, black 53'500

IW544704 Portuguese Tourbillon Hand-Wound platinum, black 73'800

IW544703 Portuguese Tourbillon Hand-Wound white gold, rhutenium 59'000

IW544702 Portuguese Tourbillon Hand-Wound rose gold 4N, blue 55'300

IW545405 Portuguese Hand-Wound stainless steel, argenté 8'300

IW545404 Portuguese Hand-Wound stainless steel, black 8'300

IW570207 Portuguese Hand-Wound Pure Classic stainless steel, black 7'300

IW570208 Portuguese Hand-Wound Pure Classic stainless steel, argenté 7'300 

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