Watches And Wonders 2024: IWC Introduces The Portugieser Eternal Calendar With A Moon Phase Accurate For 45 Million Years
4 min read
Calendar complications are IWC’s bread and butter. The company has been able to demonstrate its true engineering and mechanical might through the tiny levers and gears synchronizing to read the somewhat bizarre measurements of the Gregorian calendar. With a compelling heritage, defined by the remarkably ingenious mechanism of a perpetual calendar from almost half a century ago, IWC further welds repute by introducing its first secular perpetual calendar with the release of the Portugieser Eternal Calendar at Watches and Wonders 2024.
A Challenging Calendar Mechanism
Getting trapped in the web of tradition is a common pitfall. While it's crucial to honor heritage, it can sometimes lead to taking the path of least resistance, stunting growth and sidestepping challenges. The approach taken by IWC with the Portugieser Eternal Calendar breaks away from tradition and eschews simplicity. Despite its unconventional appearance, this departure from the norm ultimately enhances its appeal. The embracing of this demanding endeavor mechanically resolves the anomalies with traditional perpetual calendars where even the most complex apparatus requires three corrections every 400 years. What the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar does is allow for an error-free calculation of the leap year until at least the year 3999. Thanks to a 400-years gear in the calendar module of the IWC-manufactured caliber 52640, offering a power reserve of seven days packed in two barrels, which completes a single revolution every four centuries, the most accurate interpretation of a leap year indication is conceived.
As explained by Chris Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen, “Since Kurt Klaus developed his legendary perpetual calendar in the 1980s, IWC Schaffhausen has accumulated unique expertise in mechanical calendars that are ingeniously efficient in their design and easy to use. Our first secular perpetual calendar automatically takes into account the Gregorian calendar’s complex leap-year exception rules by skipping the leap year three times over 400 years.”
A Moon Phase Accurate For 45,000,000 Years
45 million years! Yes, that’s 45 with an impressive train of zeros behind it. That is how long before the double moon phase display of the Portugieser Eternal Calendar will deviate by a single day from the moon’s actual orbit. The new moon phase with unprecedented accuracy leverages a special reduction gear train to incline its display with as close as possible to the actual lunar cycle which isn’t 30 days, but rather 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.88 seconds. The double moon display shows the moon as visible from the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
“True to the spirit of engineers who are always pushing the boundaries, we have also fitted this technical marvel with a moon phase display that will only deviate from the moon’s orbit by one day after 45 million years,” explains Chris Grainger-Herr.
A Well-Crafted Case with A Complex Glass Dial
The near-45 mm platinum case of the new IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar released at Watches and Wonders 2024 features a double box-glass sapphire crystal. It offers an uninterrupted and arresting view of its complex glass dial. The multi-faceted process involves underside frosting and lacquering of the dial in white. The sub-registers are individually machined and applied on the dial followed by hand-fixing of the appliques. This sandwich construction lends its printing and appliques immense depth. The case is paired with an Italian artisanal leather strap from the atelier of Santoni.
When Clever is an Understatement
What the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar achieves is nothing short of extraordinary. Every single component embedded within its petite space makes the watch capable of maintaining accuracies of a calendar which to be honest is very uncooperative considering the volume of concessions and reductions it demands. So, the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar is a classic example of what ensues when a timepiece breaks the mold and pursues the highest complexity of tracking every element of a calendar with centennial accuracy.
