Launched in early 2015, the new Portugieser Annual Calendar (Ref. 5035) is IWC’s first annual calendar. IWC will be showcasing all of its new watches for the new year at SIHH 2015, watch fair in Geneva.
Overall, it took IWC’s watch designers almost 5 years to develop the annual calendar. What is an annual calendar? An annual calendar watch, unlike a perpetual calendar watch, is not wound to be able to detect a leap year. In IWC 2015 watch with annual calendar, month, date and day are shown in three separate, semicircular windows at “12 o’clock”. The date switching mechanism is able to take the differing lengths of individual months into account but not those for differing numbers of days in February, owing to leap years.
IWC 2015 watch annual calendar’s newly developed 52850 calibre has twin barrels to supply the additional torque required to advance the three display discs. The new IWC-manufactured 52850 calibre has two barrels that keep the new function supplied with ample energy and still has enough left for a 7-day power reserve.
IWC 2015 watch price is USD 24100 for Steel and blue dial . IWC 2015 watch with Annual Calendar is priced at USD 34500 for the rose gold version.
————————————————
Specifications of IWC 2015 Watch Annual Calendar
FEATURES
Mechanical movement – Pellaton automatic winding – Power reserve display – Annual calendar with
displays for the date, day and month – Small hacking seconds at 9 o’clock – Glucydur®* beryllium
alloy indexless balance with high-precision adjustment screws on balance rim – Breguet spring –
See-through sapphire-glass back – Rotor with 18-carat gold medallion
MOVEMENT
IWC-manufactured calibre 52850
Frequency 28,800 A/h / 4 Hz
Jewels 36
Power reserve 7 days (168 h)
Winding automatic
WATCH
Materials Ref. IW503501: case in stainless steel, silver-plated dial,
black alligator leather strap, folding clasp in stainless steel
Ref. IW503502: case in stainless steel, midnight blue dial,
black alligator leather strap, folding clasp in stainless steel
Ref. IW503504: case in 18-carat red gold, silver-plated dial,
black alligator leather strap, folding clasp in 18-carat red gold
Glass sapphire, arched edge, antireflective coating on both sides
Water-resistant 3 bar
Diameter 44.2 mm
Case height 15.3 mm
IWC 2015 Annual Calendar Design: In order to free up as much space as possible for the date display, the designers replaced the indices from “11 o’clock” to “1 o’clock” with the three display discs. The “American” order in which the date is shown was not only necessary from a technical and design point of view, but is also a homage to F. A. Jones, IWC’s American founder. With its voluminous 44.2-millimetre case, grooved bezel, classic railway-track-style chapter ring, slim feuille hands and almost unchanged Arabic numerals, the Portugieser Annual Calendar very closely resembles the original Portugieser of 1939, a veritable design icon. The small seconds subdial, however, is not positioned at “6 o’clock” as in the original, but at “9 o’clock”. The subdial on the opposite side contains the power reserve display. The in-house movement with 7-day power reserve is yet another quantum leap in the history of the Portugieser family 2015.
