The Portofino watches from IWC Schaffhausen have been bringing the laid-back Italian lifestyle to wrists for over 30 years. Now, this timelessly elegant watch family is gaining two new members, a tourbillon model and a moon-phase watch. Today, we are presenting the tourbillon model.
The Portofino Hand-Wound Tourbillon Rétrograde (Ref. IW516501) is the first Portofino to feature a tourbillon, with the balance, pallet and escape wheel mounted in a cage that rotates around its own axis once every minute. The newly developed hacking tourbillon enables the watch to be set with down-to-the-second accuracy. IWC has also revised the geometry of the pallet and the escape wheel, plus it has manufactured the components using diamond-coated silicon, thus reducing friction. This contributes substantially to the power reserve of eight days achieved with the IWC hand-wound 59900 calibre. A retrograde date display and power reserve display accompany the flying minute tourbillon on the silver-plated dial that features gold-plates hands and solid gold appliqués.
The 45mm case is made of 18-carat red gold. The sapphire-glass back provides a view of the hand-wound IWC-manufactured calibre 59900, which is adorned with Geneva stripes.
The watch is worn on a dark brown alligator leather strap by Santoni.
