With SIHH 2015 beginning today, the releases are already rolling in. It appears IWC is going all out with a Portuguese family revival, as they’ve already made a couple pre-event announcements. While the Portugieser Annual Calendar is an interesting release, we’re going to focus on the sportier Yacht Club Chronograph.
The Portuguese family of IWC watches is a great blend of sport and class, with the Yacht Club Chronograph leaning more towards the former. Originally designed for two Portuguese businessmen looking for their own version of a marine chronometer, the Portuguese watch was built for legibility and precision. At the time, the Portuguese was considered massive at 43mm in case diameter, but it wasn’t built for form nearly as much as function. Now that time has passed, technology has improved, and case sizes have increased such that 43mm is pretty much the norm. For these reasons, I consider the Yacht Club Chronograph the natural progression for the original Portuguese. It features characteristics of modern sport watches while holding onto archetypal design elements without overdoing it.
Admittedly, I haven’t been the biggest fan of IWC’s direction in the last five years or so. However, I think the latest Aquatimer is an improvement over its predecessor, and the new Yacht Club Chronograph is another sign of a “righting of the ship”. One of the things that’s bothered me most with IWC is the major case size increase. The current iteration of the Yacht Club Chrono is 45.4mm; and for a watch of its design, that’s too big for 90% of the population. Thankfully, IWC has listened to the cries of watch lovers all over, reducing the case size to 43.5mm. Ideally, it would be 40-42mm, but this is an excellent step in the right direction. It shows IWC has seen the writing on the wall with regard to the large watch trend. Who knows, maybe the next Portuguese family revision will show a lineup of 42mm and below cases.
Of course, case size reduction isn’t the only good feature of the new Yacht Club Chronograph. Powering the updated reference is IWC’s in-house, self-winding caliber 89361, with 68 hours of power reserve and a flyback function. IWC maintained the 12:00/6:00 layout, with the 12:00 subdial showing 60 minutes and 12 hours of elapsed time – a great feature we also love on Omega’s caliber 9300 bi-compax design.
Aesthetically, the Yacht Club Chronograph hasn’t changed a whole lot, aside from the dimensions – something we have no problem with. Its decidedly good looks needed no updating. The steel version can be had with a slate or silver dial, while the red gold case will come with the silver dial, all featuring subtle red accents. With the slightly smaller wrist presence, and sporty-yet-classy looks, the new Yacht Club Chronograph will have no problem out on the water or hobnobbing with the George Hamilton-looking folks in your club’s banquet hall. We applaud this recent effort from IWC and look forward to their other new releases this week.
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Chris
An IWC model has decreased in size? Please let this be part of a larger industry trend. It’s a beautiful watch that was just about 10% larger than it should have been.
Shane Griffin
I would be surprised if we don’t see a number of downsized watches at Basel.