One of the best looking of all the IWC lines also happens to be one of the least expensive. 2011 is officially the Year of the Portofino collection according to IWC, and they have just announced the launch of the Hand-Wound Eight Days Portofino (Ref 5101).
It’s the flagship of the new collection (which also includes a chronograph, a simple automatic, and a dual time.) The Hand Wound Eight Days uses a movement that is 37.9mm in diameter, the same size as a pocket watch movement. The manually wound watch features an impressive power reserve of, yes, eight days. Its classical shape is reminiscent of the IWC models from the 1960s, without necessarily making it a retro design.
The clean dial displays power reserve, seconds in a subsidiary register, and date. The straps for the new Portofino collection come in a choice of leather by Santoni, the famed Italian shoemakers and what is known as Milanese mesh bracelets of the sort that were popular on 1960’s watches.
Back as early as the 1950s, celebrities such as Maria Callas and film stars including Ingrid Bergmann and Clark Gable had already discovered the natural beauty of the small Mediterranean harbour town. A decade later, in the 1960s, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton relaxed there during breaks from filming “Cleopatra” in Rome. And the late American First Lady Jackie Kennedy apparently felt very much at home there. It’s for all these exotic reasons that the Portofino collection was so named when it was first launched in 1984.
The watches are definitely stylish, elegant clean and crisp, but the press release that accompanies the launch of the new Portofino collection assumes that we are already living la dolce vita, idly passing the morning on a sun lounger by the pool while it rattles on unremittingly for nearly 2000 over egged words.
One thing’s for sure, we haven’t heard the last of the Portofino collection from IWC this year, but for a collection that is supposed to be so sophisticated and understated, perhaps they should just let the watches do the talking.
The Portofino, though the most dressy watch in the IWC range, has somehow, until now, seemed to be the poor relation, often ignored or forgotten. This revamp really gives it total equality with its brethren at last. A jolly good job. Congratulations.