IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph

IWC revives and old name. The IWC Yatchclub was a mechanical watch with a date function, sold by IWC in the 60's and the 70's. For 2010, IWC has revived the Yatchclub name in a decidedly more interesting watch.

IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph. The new IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph is a flyback chronograph watch. For those not familiar with the flyback function, basically in a conventional chronograph, a button is depressed to start the counter, a second press of the same button is required to stop it, and another button is depressed to reset the chronograph seconds hand back to zero. Restarting the counter would require three button presses: Stop-Reset-Start. The flyback function allows a quick restart of the chronograph from zero with a single button press.

The flyback feature is not the only feature that makes this watch impressive. Most chronographs use two subdials in conjunction with the large minute hand in conjunction with the chronograph function. The large hand displays seconds, one sub-dial displays minutes and the another sub-dial displays hours. In the IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph, a single sub-dials with two hands is used to display both the minutes and the hours, resulting in a cleaner looking, and in our opinion, more interesting looking dial. The watch also displays the date on the dial.

The watch is powered by the self-winding IWC Cal. 89360 movement, which produces 28,800 vibrations per hour and has an impressive 68 hour power reserve. The movement is visible through a sapphire crystal caseback. The case of the watch is 45.5mm in diameter and the watch can be had in stainless steel or red gold.

A new direction? Watches in IWC's line of Portuguese watches have been designed to be more classical in their appearance. Paired with leather straps and without any luminescence on the dial, they have always carried a very elegant look. Despite the history of Portuguese as a maritime watch, the watches were more elegant than sporty. The IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph eschews all this with luminated hands and a rubber strap. The only thing detracting from the action oriented nature of the watch is the 60 meter water resistance rating.

About IWC. IWC or the the "International Watch Co. Schaffhausen" was founded by an American engineer from Boston, Florentine Ariosto Jones, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in the year 1868. IWC Schaffhausen is notable for being the only major Swiss watch factory located in eastern Switzerland, as the majority of the well-known Swiss watch manufacturers are located in western Switzerland.