NEW Watches & Wonders 2024 Release – The IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar Arrives

Watches & Wonders 2024 has kicked off to a great start this morning with a release from pilot watch specialist, IWC Schaffhausen. The new IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar looks far ahead into the future with a complex design, accurate to the year 3900

It has been almost forty years since IWC Schaffhausen released its first perpetual calendar. But once again, boundaries are being pushed. The Schaffhausen-based watch manufacturer leaps into its first secular perpetual calendar. It’s a watch that recognises the different lengths of the months and a leap year every four years, yes. But the new IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar will now take into account the Gregorian calendar’s complex leap-year system, skipping three leap years over four centuries!

“These are firsts for the manufacturer…”

By the time the year 2100 comes, this new IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar watch will be achieving something very special that neither you nor I will ever witness. It will take into consideration a skipped leap year. If this isn’t the epitome of a family heirloom, I don’t know what is. Imagine keeping a watch running perfectly from the moment it is worn on your wrist, knowing that, if cared for perfectly, your grandchildren will be experiencing the same accuracy decades down the line. But that’s not all. IWC is combining this with another slice of horological mastery. The Portugieser Eternal Calendar will also feature a very precise moon phase display that will deviate from the moon’s orbit just one time over a period of 45 million years! If you watched the Lunar Eclipse last night over the states of America, the phenomenon was sure to have had you completely entranced by its majestic beauty and - also – just how much more we still have to learn about the subject. A watch that tracks the positioning of the milky celestial body in the sky each evening is a very special thing to own, but IWC enthusiasts are certain to want to get their hands on this ultra-accurate instrument from the popular Portugieser collection this year. Without a doubt, these are firsts for the manufacturer, adding to the allure of the timepiece considerably.

The Special Eternal Calendar Movement

What’s interesting about this new IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar is that it uses the same architecture as the company’s existing perpetual calendar watches but adds a 400-gear module that allows for a complete rotation to happen every 400 years. It requires a mere 8 additional parts but works in the most precise way. The movement is promised to calculate the leap years accurately until the year 3999 and delivers a seven-day power reserve too. The switch from the irregular calendar to a mechanical program is something that IWC describes as engineeringly challenging. While the Gregorian calendar divides the year into twelve months, only those years that are divisible by four count as leap years and a 29th day in February must be added. An additional correction is then needed to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. Those centuries that can be divided by four hundred are leap years and all others are common years.

The secular perpetual calendar that IWC is releasing in the design of the new Portugieser Eternal Calendar watch differs from other perpetual calendar watches in the fact that the standard perpetual calendar is only programmed for a four-year cycle. The vast difference between how these two watches work demonstrates the complexity of the movement and the horological advancements that IWC has truly made here. Instead of a standard perpetual calendar needing a manual correction in the years 2100, 2200, and 2300 - the Eternal Calendar will take care of all this itself.

The New IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar Watch Ref W505701

The new IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar is designed to take the complex nuances of the perpetual calendar into account, looking after these alterations until the year 3999. CEO of IWC, Chris Grainger-Herr explains:

“Since Kurt Klaus developed his legendary perpetual calendar in the 1980s, IWC Schaffhausen has accumulated unique expertise in mechanical calendars that are ingeniously efficient in their design and easy to use. With the new Portugieser Eternal Calendar, we now venture further than ever before, touching the limits of eternity. Our first secular perpetual calendar automatically takes into account the Gregorian calendar’s complex leap-year exception rules by skipping the leap year three times over 400 years. True to the spirit of engineers who are always pushing the boundaries, we have also fitted this technical marvel with a moon phase display that will only deviate from the moon’s orbit by one day after 45 million years.”

What makes this new 2024 IWC watch release even more special is its level of finishing, and we would expect nothing less of the prestigious Swiss Maison. Based on the foundations of the company’s perpetual calendar, all functions relating to the calendar are accessed through the crown. IWC also implements a reduction gear between the base movement and the moon phase plate to ensure each calendar month is reduced as close as possible to one true lunar cycle. By a true lunar cycle, I mean 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.88 seconds as opposed to 30 days. This complex process, by which IWC engineers have used a special computer program to simulate 22 trillion different combinations of teeth and wheels, will only deviate from the moon’s orbit by one day after 45 million years. The indicator on the dial also shows the moon as seen from the Northern and Southern hemispheres in what is known as the Double Moon complication. Two discs, a lower one made from titanium, and an upper one made from glass, create the illusion of a moon waxing and waning.

The new Portugieser Eternal Calendar is crafted from platinum and measures a diameter of 44.4mm. Sitting at 15mm tall, it features a mix of polished and brushed finishes, a glass dial with a frosted underside finish and a white lacquered finish. Each of the calendrical functions has been machined and finished separately before being applied to the dial. The printed elements on the dial give depth to the glass structure and appear to almost float upon the surface of the display.

Without a doubt, there is something insanely complex and sophisticated about this watch. It’s a feature that no human would ever live long enough to see, but the mere thought of owning something clever enough to do what it does is sure to captivate fans of the brand and complication enthusiasts alike.

To pre-order the IWC Schaffhausen Portugieser Eternal Calendar watch today, call and speak to a member of our Jura Watches sales team on 01335 453453 or email us a question at help@jurawatches.co.uk