Watches and Wonders 2024: IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Now Gets A Day & Night Display

The codes of haute horlogerie complications are somewhat rigid and well-defined. Yet an interesting display and some mechanical-mystique can elevate a simple timekeeper to the echelons of an haute horlogerie inception. Like with many things we equate with watchmaking, it is the form-function equilibrium that garners true prestige and consumer affinity. While there is a sizable faction that believes a tourbillon is an obsolete in-the-face complication serving no actual purpose in a wristwatch, I tend to oppose. When something so petite serves you an ocular delight of epic caliber, well, what better purpose could it serve. Pair it up with a three-dimensional and undisputedly practical day-night indicator, you get a perfect recipe to brew an haute horlogerie opus. Where do we seek this delight? In the IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night introduced at Watches and Wonders 2024 Geneva.

IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Tracks Earth’s Rotation

If you recognise IWC solely for its aviation inspired timepieces, then you surely have been restricted from the expansive purview that defines this engineering behemoth. For IWC, post the Günter Blümlein resurrection, the Portugieser has been defined as the chief collection for the Manufacture. This emblematic entity in the brand’s repertoire has been a canvas of expressive horology innovation and with the launch of the IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night at Watches and Wonders 2024, IWC has managed to keep the line-up fresh and interesting.

This new release, the Ref. IW545901 presented in a 42.4 mm 18-carat Armor gold case appends to the legacy of high-complications at IWC. The list of its mechanical complexities kicks off with the flying minute tourbillon. Despite the tourbillon’s chronometric precision radiating an unrivalled dramatic appeal, it is the three-dimensional Day & Night indication at 9 o’clock which poses as the showstopper. This globe shaped entity indicates whether the 12-hour cycle is day or night. With a dark and bright side indicating night or day, this petite planet rotates once every 24 hours. Its integration with the hand wound tourbillon caliber 81925 ticking away at 4Hz adds on a new chapter of complexity to IWC’s manufacture movement inceptions.

A Hacking Flying Minute Tourbillon

Featuring a black Obsidian dial with its 6 o’clock aperture revealing the flying minute tourbillon, the IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night released at Watches and Wonders 2024 marries its minimalistic aesthetic with a super-sophisticated mechanical contraption that rotates about its axis once every minute. This captivating hallmark of the timepiece comprises 56 parts weighing a little over half a gram. Thanks to an ingenious mechanism, the tourbillon features a hacking stop-go function allowing for time setting down to the exact second.

Paired with a curved black alligator strap from the Italian leather atelier Santoni, the timepiece exudes classic refinement at its best. This new release breathes a life of celestial complexity and mechanical mastery into the ever-expansive IWC Portugieser family while demonstrating the Maison’s inventive genius.