The Portofino collection from IWC Schaffhausen now includes a beautiful watch model that features a sophisticated new development. With a watchmaking complication in the form of a large date and day display, the Portofino Hand-Wound Day & Date is an extremely practical timepiece.
“At IWC Schaffhausen one of our aims has always been to make watches that combine functionality with elegant, clear-cut design,” says IWC CEO Georges Kern, commenting on the latest addition to the Portofino watch family. In the Portofino Hand-Wound Day & Date (Ref. IW516201/ IW516203) IWC’s designers and watchmakers have combined the large date with a day display and created an aesthetically pleasing timepiece that is also enormously beneficial in practice. The Portofino Hand-Wound Day & Date with the newly developed IWC-manufactured 59220 cali bre embodies the timeless elegance of the Portofino series.
A new engineering approach for the IWC Portofino
With its large date, day and power reserve displays, together with a small seconds hand at “6 o’clock”, the dial features an impressive number of easy-to-read indicators. Despite this, the latest member of the family retains the Portofino’s characteristically subtle elegance. Two large digits at “12 o’clock”, where we see the perfect interplay of two precisely synchronized discs, show the date. One of the two discs bears the numerals 0 to 3 and takes care of the tens, while the second, which bears the figures 0 to 9, handles the single digits. Responsible for the perfect synchronization between the two discs is the IWC-manufactured 59220 calibre. An additional display, which shows the actual day of the week, is directly connected to the date advance mechanism. Two elastic advance fingers superimposed one on top of the other tap off energy from the barrel throughout the day. By midnight, they have built up enough power, first, to advance the date and, second, to move a seven-toothed star wheel that cause the hand to jump to the next day of the week. Fully wound, the eightday movement keeps running precisely for 192 hours with no need for any intervention. At that point, the owner will need to replenish its power reserve by winding the crown, as indicated by the power reserve display on the dial. The modern watch movement design, featuring large bridges with Geneva stripes and circular-grained plates, is visible through the sapphire-glass back.
Versions in stainless steel and red gold
The Portofino Hand-Wound Day & Date is available in stainless steel (Ref. IW516201) with a silver-plated dial, rhodiumplated hands and indices, and a black leather strap from Santoni. The red gold version (IW516203) features a slatecoloured dial, gold-plated hands and 18-carat red gold indices together with a brown leather strap from Santoni. The world-famous Italian shoemaker produces high-quality leather straps exclusively for IWC Schaffhausen. A complex process during manufacture endows the leather with a patina that results in a characteristic gradation of colour. The technique makes leather look as if it had already been lovingly cared for over a period of several years even though it is, in fact, brand new. Another instantly recognizable feature of Santoni shoes is an orange leather lining, mirrored here on the inner surface of the strap. The charm and aesthetic cachet of southern European life are united in the perfect craftsmanship common to both watch and strap.
