The Extraordinarily-Superior IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar (incl. Video)

IWC’s Portugieser Eternal Calendar is the undisputed calendar masterpiece of the Schaffhausen-based mannequin for Watches and Wonders 2024. A colossal technical milestone, the Eternal Calendar marks the mannequin’s first secular perpetual calendar. Not like a perpetual calendar which will desire a correction in 2100, the Eternal Calendar is fitted with a 400-year gear that overrides the Gregorian calendar’s difficult bissextile 12 months rule exceptions and skips three leap years over 4 centuries. In short, it isn’t going to must be adjusted until 3999! Combined with a hyper-precision moon part present which will deviate from the Moon’s orbit by sooner or later in 45 million years, this Eternal Calendar in a platinum Portugieser case is a tour de strain.

Exceptions to the Rule

Since antiquity, astronomers have invented units to observe, measure and predict the motions of our universe with ever-increasing accuracy. As outlined on this text, calendars are a method of condensing this enormous amount of knowledge, and since 1582, the Gregorian calendar has dominated our lives. The reason it has lasted so prolonged is that it is surprisingly right due to its incorporation of a further day on the end of February every 4 years to copy the true time it takes the Earth to revolve throughout the Photo voltaic.

Typically often known as leap years, together with an intercalary day on the end of February every 4 years ensures that our calendar stays in sync with nature’s cycles. In step with the Gregorian calendar, years which will be divisible by 4 are leap years. To extra complicate points, there are exceptions to the rule. Centurial years ending in 00 that could be divided by 400 are leap years (1600, 2000, 2400, 2800), whereas centurial years like 2100, 2200 and 2300, which can be divided by 100, aren’t.

From QP…

Translating this copious information into the miniature realm of watchmaking is a gargantuan exercise. Watchmakers, though, are dogged souls and have offer you a bunch of mechanisms to copy the Gregorian calendar packed inside diminutive areas. On the excessive end of the calendar complication is the Perpetual Calendar. In any case, IWC isn’t any newcomer to calendar watches, and Kurt Klaus’ ingenious perpetual calendar mechanism was launched contained within the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar in 1985. Capable of manually synchronising all the exhibits by means of the crown, it marked the first QP with a four-digit yr present. Robotically recognising the completely completely different lengths of the month and the bissextile 12 months on the end of February every 4 years, the QP movement requires a small adjustment inside the centurial years that skip the bissextile 12 months – 2100, 2200 and 2300.

…To Eternity

Completely the king of calendar watches is the secular perpetual calendar, a flowery beast mastered by solely a handful of watchmakers – just a few of the unusual examples: the Patek Philippe Calibre 89, the Perpetuel Secular Calendar by Svend Andersen or the Frank Muller Mega Aeternitas, and two present introductions, the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Universelle and the Furlan Marri Secular Perpetual Calendar.

Capable of accounting for centurial years, IWC’s Eternal Calendar is equipped with a 400-year gear designed to skip three leap years over 4 centuries. This quantum leap permits it to calculate the bissextile 12 months precisely until 3999 because of, as IWC’s press launch states, “it has not however been formally decided whether or not or not the yr 4000 shall be a bissextile 12 months or not.”

To take care of the bissextile 12 months inconsistencies, IWC’s chief design officer Christian Knoop explains that solely two gears had been added to the gear follow. Impressively compact, the 400-year gear has merely eight components and responds to the intention of using the least amount of components by combining them in ingenious strategies. One in every of many gears completes one revolution every 400 years, and its three indentations strain the calendar to skip three leap years over that interval. The wheels are grown using hyper-precision Liga experience.

Unprecedented Precision

IWC’s engineers have moreover built-in a moon part present using a restricted number of components nevertheless offering unprecedented precision. Deviating from the Moon’s orbit by solely sooner or later after 45 million years, IWC’s engineers developed a model new low cost gear follow using three intermediate wheels between the underside movement and the moon part disc. Surpassing the current moon part precision file of two million years held by watchmaker Andreas Strehler and his Lune Perpétuelle 2M, IWC has utilized for a nomination inside the Guinness World E book of Info.

Portugieser Legacy

Whereas it is exhausting to think about that every one this experience is packed contained within the 44.4mm diameter platinum case with a thickness of 15mm, the just about non-existent bezel permits a big, open view of the dial, which is a lesson in elegant, ethereal design. The Portugieser was chosen for its timeless, pure aesthetics, generous proportions, and instrument legacy. As Christian Knoop explains in our video, the model new design codes exhibiting on the dial can be the blueprint for the rest of the Portugieser assortment.

The format of calendar capabilities is strictly like these found on Kurt Klaus’ Perpetual Calendar – moon phases at noon, three sub-dials with calendar information and the four-digit yr window between 7 and eight o’clock. Based mostly totally on the an identical modular design as a result of the perpetual calendar, all the exhibits of the Portugieser Eternal Calendar could also be superior using the crown.

Transparency and translucency are the operative phrases proper right here. The dial and caseback are protected by double-domed sapphire crystals, and the dial is constructed from glass with a frosted and lacquered white underside. Following the domed contours of the box-glass crystal, the white lacquered minutes flange with its signature Portugieser railway observe will be raised.

The calendar sub-dials of the Portugieser Eternal Calendar are moreover crafted in sapphire crystal and float above the glassy dial, producing a good looking, ethereal sensation. At noon, IWC incorporates its trademarked double moon part present, which first appeared in 2003 and represents the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The marginally opaque glass with two holes reveals the waxing and waning of the two moons set in direction of a guilloché sky. Completely different signature Portugieser traits are the hand-applied Arabic numerals and classy leaf-shaped palms.

Calibre 52460

The newly developed IWC-manufactured 52460 calibre depends on the mannequin’s primary computerized calibre with a giant 38mm diameter, a Pellaton winding system and a 7-day power reserve. The bidirectional 18k gold rotor builds up an affect reserve of 168 hours inside the two barrels. Parts of the winding system are manufactured from zirconium oxide ceramic to cease them from sporting down. The movement’s ending is discreet inside the typical IWC kind, well-executed with out being extreme with spherical graining and Geneva stripes seen by way of the box-shaped sapphire caseback (a model new attribute that’s found on quite a few completely different fashions inside the Portugieser line).

Availability & Price

The IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar is paired with a handsome black Santoni alligator strap and a platinum folding clasp. The price is CHF 150,000. For further information, please search the recommendation of iwc.com.