The Blue Hour: A Hands-On Review of the IWC replica watches Portugieser Chronograph Edition “150 Years”

At the beginning of last year, IWC introduced a 150-year anniversary edition of its Portugieser Chronograph as a limited-edition model alongside the original Portugieser Chronograph, which debuted in 1998. The most replica watches Iwc significant difference between the two is the movement: the unlimited version has a modified ETA Valjoux 7750, while the anniversary model is animated by the new manufacture caliber from the 69000 series. The newcomer’s case has been given a sapphire back and its dial boasts lacquered numerals; the standard model has applied numerals. The two watches are very similar in all other aspects, including their dimensions and proportions.

The Portugieser Chronograph has enjoyed strong popularity for many years and is one of IWC’s bestselling models. No one could have possibly predicted this success when the Portugieser’s history began in 1939. The story starts fake watches with two Portuguese businessmen who told IWC they were looking for a large wristwatch that could keep time with the accuracy of a ship’s chronometer. IWC responded by filling a 41.5-mm-diameter steel case with Caliber 74H4, which was originally used in pocketwatches and is more than 38 mm in diameter.

This hand-wound wristwatch was given a neatly designed dial with a railway-style minutes circle, Arabic numerals and a subdial for the seconds at 6 o’clock. In an era when gents preferred to wear small and elegant wristwatches, the Portugieser must have looked like a gigantic measuring instrument strapped to its wearer’s wrist. The first models were manufactured in rather small numbers: after making only a few hundred specimens, IWC discontinued production of the Portugieser in 1958.

Success finally came more than three decades later, in 1993. That’s when IWC built a limited edition Portugieser, which again encased a pocketwatch caliber. Now the time was ripe for this elegantly simple watch. And fake watches IWC’s clientele was enthusiastic. The Schaffhausen-based brand followed suit in 1998 with the Portugieser Chronograph, which is the direct ancestor of the watch we tested. Large watches were gradually coming into fashion in the late 1990s. IWC hadn’t debuted a manufacture caliber in many years, but this situation changed in 2000, when the brand decided to encase its newly created manufacture movement inside the Portugieser. Automatic Caliber 5000 ticked inside the Portugieser Automatic, which was released in a limited edition of 2,000 pieces. The caliber amassed a seven-day power reserve and showed the current status of its “fuel tank” on an indicator at 3 o’clock, opposite a subdial for the seconds at 9.