iwc old collection from 1945

IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Eight Days Caliber 59210 (Ref. 5101)One of my most favored Swiss watchmakers is prepping a number of new timepieces for the upcoming SIHH 2011 even. The new IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Eight Days Caliber 59210 watch (Ref. 5101) is among them.Playing on the crowded field of “affordable” dress watches, IWC Portofino has always been somewhat of an ugly duck in the family of beautiful swans.Now, however, the model is updated and seems to be moved a tad upmarket.The new IWC Portofino Hand-Wound 8 Days will be the most expensive model in the line-up, which will also include a Portofino Automatic (Ref. 3565,) Portofino Chronograph (Ref. 3910,) and Portofino Dual Time (Ref. 3610) GMT watch.Having successfully absorbed the core DNA of the recently refreshed IWC Portuguese family, the new model features a similar dial layout, is powered by an in-house Caliber 59210 manual-wind movement, and will soon be available both in stainless steel and in rose gold.The movement in question belongs to the Cal. 50000 family of engines and, being almost 38 millimeters in diameter, is rather large.Sporting a set of massive bridges and plates, the movement will possibly be especially sturdy and robust compared to calibers built with gentler, thinner, less rigid parts.Of course, the pocket watch-sized manual-wind mechanical movement has enough room for an oversized mainspring barrel which is capable of powering the watch for up to 192 hours.That is more than enough even if you plan to wear the timepiece only on weekends.If you, like me, belong to the neurotic part of the population that checks the fuel gauge every three minutes even if the tank is still three quarters full, then a beautifully executed power reserve indicator located between 8 and 9 o’clock may come extremely handy to you.Leaf-shaped hour and minute hands, solid gold hour indexes, as well as the small seconds indicator at 6 o’clock, also look extremely elegant.The Roman numeral at 12 o’clock may raise some eyebrows, but, all in all, this generation of the IWC Portofino family has a good chance of becoming one of the most popular since the line was introduced in 1984.If the price is right, that is.

In addition to sharing with you an article I wrote for AskMen.com about the cool IWC Da Vinci Ceramic Chronograph watch, I wanted to share images I took of the watch. It is probably the first IWC Watches?Da Vinci watch that I could see myself wearing. The automatic movement is the same as the one used in the new IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph watch, but the style is totally different. Who would have thought that IWC would have dreamed up a use for ceramic in their typically high-brow Da Vinci collection. A sporty Da Vinci you ask? Well yes, here it is. The unusually shaped tonneau steel case sandwiches black ceramic segments, and there is the pretty cool coated, woven fabric strap. The dial is quite three dimension with lots of areas of interesting and textures. The chronograph is for a full 12 hours, as the upper dial has two hands and is used for the minute and hours. Finishing is great on the piece, and it is such an usual watch in terms of style that people won't know what this wild IWC is. The price is $16,600. Read my IWC Da Vinci Ceramic Chronograph watch article on AskMen.com here