From poor start to IWC's most popular line

THE Portugieser is IWC's most popular watch line. You wouldn't have guessed it from its early history. The collection was started because two customers wanted a big stainless steel wrist watch with a movement that could match the accuracy of a marine chronometer. This was in the 1930s.

The only way IWC could meet the high precision with perfect readability was to fit the watch with a pocket watch movement. The first Portugieser watch was born in 1939 when timepieces were generally smaller than 33mm and, because of the influence of the Art deco style, were square or rectangle, rather than round.

And it got its name from the two customers, who were businessmen from Portugal. The Portugieser, built in a 43mm case to accommodate a larger pocket watch movement, was deemed too big and unfashionable. Its key design elements were a streamlined dial with Arabic numbers, a very thin bezel that makes the watch look even bigger, leaf hands and a large sub dial at 6 o'clock for the seconds.