IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Tourbillon Retrograde

Quick specs IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Tourbillon Retrograde
Price: $ 58,000 | approx. € 49.000 | approx. £ 43,500
Size: 45 mm
Reference: IW516501

2017 is the year of the IWC Da Vinci. Traditionally IWC redesigns one of their collections each year, but that does not mean that they neglect their other lines. They presented for example a whole bunch of new Ingenieurs recently. And they added quite an impressive piece to their Portofino collection, the IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Tourbillon Retrograde.

A piece that is worth noticing, because the Portofino watches are mostly made up of ‘simple’ and affordable watches. Absolutely not the case for the Portofino Hand-Wound Tourbillon Retrograde, which houses three impressive features. First is the hand-wound movement (caliber 59900) with an 8-day power-reserve. Then there is the flying tourbillon at the 6 o’clock position. And it has a retrograde date display that stretches from 8 to 10 o’clock.

The IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Tourbillon Retrograde is available with a pink gold case

The hand-wound caliber allows the integration of a hacking tourbillon, which makes it possible to set the time precisely to the second.

The retrograde date display shows the date in an analogue way with a date hand that moves in an arc from the 1^st to the 31^st of the month. The hand jumps back automatically to the 1^st after the last day of months that have 31 days. In months with fewer than 31 days or when the watch has not been used for a while, the date display can be advanced rapidly and jumps back to the first of the month.

The tourbillon at 6 o’clock is surrounded by a silvered dial and is housed in an 18-carat pink gold case. As is often the case with IWC, the dark brown leather strap comes from the famous Italian shoemaker and luxury brand Santoni.