IWC Portuguese Tourbillon Hand Wound Ref. IW546301

IWC normally launches its watches at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie held in January of each year. IWC does release limited edition watches through the year. This year, IWC has announced to additional members to its Portuguese line-up outside of its regular release cycle: the Portuguese Chronograph Class and Portuguese Tourbillon Hand Wound.

IWC Portuguese Tourbillon Hand Wound. The design of Portuguese Tourbillon Hand-Wound revolves around a Tourbillon movement, with the balance, pallets and escape wheel  visible in a round window at 9 o’clock position. The tourbillon rotates around its own axis once every 60 seconds.

The watch comes in a 43 mm case, in either 18-carat while gold or rose gold. The white gold version comes with a slate-colored dial and silver-plated dial is supplied for the model in 18-carat red gold model. The case has a transparent sapphire-glass back which allows you to view the intricate movement. The Portuguese Tourbillon Hand-Wound comes with a dark brown Santoni alligator leather strap.

Inside the watch is IWC-manufactured 98900-calibre movement. The movement is hand wound and beats 28,800 time per hour resulting in a near fluid movement for up to 54 hours when fully wound.  

Tourbillon.  The Tourbillon was designed to counteract adverse effects the the pull of gravity on the balance wheel, that would adversely affect the watch’s rate and accuracy. The Tourbillon puts the balance, pallets and escape wheel in a tiny cage that would then rotate around its own axis once every minute. This is designed to distribute the additional wear and tear caused by gravity evenly.

I don't have the pricing for this watch, but this type of watch normally hits the six figure range in US dollars. IWC does have very reasonable pricing for its complication watches, so I think we can expect it a fair bit below US$100,000.

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.