Comprising 659 individual components, the hand-made Grande Complication packs the most significant innovations of several centuries into a tiny space.
ABOUT THE WATCH
Portugieser Grande Complication
The Portugieser Grande Complication brings together many of watchmaking’s most significant achievements. One of these is the perpetual calendar, which is mechanically programmed until 2499 and requires just three adjustments in what would normally be leap years (2100, 2200 and 2300) but are not. Further complications include the perpetual moon phase display, chronograph and minute repeater. When activated by the repeating slide, the latter chimes out the precise time in harmonious tones. A total of 20 functions are made possible by the interplay of 659 individual mechanical parts. Despite its complex construction and numerous controls, the case is water-resistant to 3 bar. For the exclusive 18-carat 5N gold model, available in a limited edition of 250 watches, the dark brown alligator leather strap from Santoni is stitched with a 5N gold thread. The engraving on the back of the case takes the form of a compass rose.
Minute repeater | IWC Schaffhausen
The minute repeater chimes out the time in hours, quarters and minutes. The highly complex strike train is operated by an eye-catching repeating slide and chimes out the time in crystal-clear tones: the hours on the lower-pitched of the two gongs, followed by a double strike on both gongs for the quarters and finally a single strike on the higher-pitched gong for the minutes. Each gong is individually handmade and then carefully tuned for pitch and tonal purity. The all-or-nothing-piece slide, as it is known, ensures that the mechanism will never chime out an incomplete – and thus incorrect – series of acoustic tones even if the repeating slide is released too early.
Features
Case
Movement
Packaging
Sales Arguments 3
Small hacking seconds
Sapphire glass, arched-edge, antireflective coating on both sides
Chronograph function with hours, minutes and seconds
Perpetual calendar with displays for the date, day, month, year in four digits and perpetual moon phase
