The IWC Portuguese dates back to the 1930s. Back then, the International Watch Company (as IWC was known in those days) received a request from some of their Portuguese clients for a wristwatch with the accuracy of a pocket watch. In those days this was only achievable with a pocket watch movement. The end result was a, for the times, massive watch which was not successful. However, IWC has always felt a strong identity to the Portuguese and has continued to release new versions in the line. This particular iteration ran from 2010 to 2014.

Diameter: 44.1mm

Lug-to-lug: 51.8mm

Thickness: 10.2mm

Lug width is: 22mm

The watch has 30 meters of water resistance.

This reference features a matte black dial with a silver metallic subdial at the 6 o’clock position with the small sections. Steel hands shine against the dial and given the small bezel size almost the full watch diameter is occupied by the dial. Railroad-track minutes circle the exterior of the dial and the minute hand is long enough to clearly run within this track. The hour and minute hand are both leaf shaped.

The silver subdial features a concentric guilloche circle pattern, a baton seconds hand, and a small splash of color is visible with the 60 seconds Arabic numerals appearing in red with the rest of the markings on the subdial, including the railroad track, in black. The Arabic hour markers are of an Art Deco font and are applied and are the same steel coloration as the hour and minute hands. Beneath the 12 o’clock marker is the IWC branding followed by Schaffhausen. Swiss Made appears at the 6 o’clock position.

The watch case itself is stainless steel and the dial is protected by a sapphire crystal. There is AR coating on the domed sapphire crystal, notably an external coating (more on that later). The watch features an interesting mix of brushed surfaces, such as on the sides of the case, and polished, such as the bezel. The lugs are curved downward. The watch features a relatively small crown at the 3 o’clock position that has the IWC logo on it. The crown has two positions. In position zero the watch can be wound and in position one the watch’s time can be set. The watch does feature hacking.

The watch comes on an alligator strap with a relatively simple pin and buckle system, the buckle featuring both brushed and polished sections with IWC branding on it.

The back of the watch features a display sapphire crystal revealing the movement, which is the caliber 98295. This is actually a pocket watch movement, similar to that of the original Portuguese. The movement is hand-wind only, has 18 jewels, beats at 2.5 Hz, and offers approximately 46 hours of power reserve. There is quite a bit of decoration on this movement. With beveling applied to the dark-gray rhodium on the three-quarter bridge and the balance cock. The base plate features circular satination and a sunburst pattern applied to the ratchet and crown wheel. You can see the extended Jones arrow index regulator for the balance, and also the sizeable hacking lever. Given the pocket watch movement’s size one can quite easily see a lot of the mechanical components to this movement, particularly given the lack of a rotor to obstruct one’s view.

Putting this watch on my timegrapher, I get an average across all six positions of a half-second per day loss. The range of readings was as slow as -6 seconds per day to as fast as +5 seconds per day.

My overall thoughts:

The positives:

• Reasonably accurate

• Thin enough to be a practical dress watch

• Great looking and easy to read dial

The negatives:

• External AR coating is easy to scratch

• Crown is hard to grip well for winding

• Size is not for everyone

This particular iteration of the Portuguese is no longer made (the line was renamed the Portugueser and there are currently smaller, automatic versions that have a similar dial layout to this).

This is a big watch. People with small wrists will probably be put off by it. As a dress watch, even with today’s larger size preferences compared to when the Portuguese was first created, this is still way outside the norm by several millimeters. One needs to remember this is meant to wear large. Thankfully, the thinness and crystal shape allows for it to easily slide under cuffs. Due to its size and simplicity it is easy to read and quickly discern the time, and has an accuracy level one would expect from a luxury brand.

My biggest issues are the crown and the AR coating. The watch winds smoothly but I find the crown difficult and somewhat painful to grip. It is a relatively small crown versus the size of the movement, and the texture of the crown really digs into my fingers. Almost like it was designed to offer grip for one’s nails rather than just using the pads of the digits. I’ve found it easiest just to use a microfiber cloth or my shirt to provide some cushion and then wind it. But it is annoying, and since this is hand-wind only you have to wind it a lot.

The other negative aspect is the AR coating. I’m never a fan of external AR coating, and when I got this watch (which, as a reminder, was used) when examining it in detail under my loupe I saw what I thought at first were faint scratches on part of the dial (which would very unusual). Viewing angle made a difference and then I suspected a scratch in the crystal (again, for sapphire, unusual). I then read up that IWC likes to AR coat the external side of the crystal, and read their “old” formula was very scratch prone (purportedly they switched to something that works better in 2016). Regardless, that explained the situation. Without a loupe it isn’t particularly detectable, but I fail to understand why you take something as hard as sapphire and then coat it with something weak on the side that gets exposed to abuse.

Overall, I’d say this is a good option for someone who wants a watch that checks the boxes of a dress watch but also wants a statement piece (and size being that statement), or alternatively for those with very large wrists who would like a dress watch but feel they normally just wear too small.