Hi all,
I'm rather new in collecting watches and have been lurking around for sometime now. I have been doing some soul-searching and trying to find a watch that can speak a little bit about myself. Clearly, choosing a watch is a very personal choice and one would find a balance between getting rational advice from more experience collectors, forums and the ‘community’ (such as all the sifus here) and a more emotional response when deciding the aesthetics to the wearer.
Just like any other lay-person, I’ve started off by getting the general vibes like how Rolex is the most rational choice of precious timepiece, that not only do they look great but hold better value than most brands. I was introduced to PP, VC and Frank Muller by my elder brother as his favourite luxury brands with a price tag that is beyond us mortals. Also, throughout the years, I’ve seen friends, acquaintance, family and relatives flashing their timepiece as a conversation starter.
Seriously, for the longest time, I had no clue on what does automatic or quartz was all about. The closest thing that’s considered horology education for me was the infamous advertisements of Seiko Kinetics and Rado’s Saphire Glass in the 90s. Back then, I thought, WOW, I gotta get me one of these cool sh*t when I start making my own money!
So, after many relationships with countless quartz and digital watches, which are mainly Christmas or birthday gifts or compulsive purchases and sometimes freebies from various sources, I have decided to at last take my first proper step into the world of horology.
After much reading, research and intense browsing (both virtual and physical). I have finally decided to narrow down on what I would like to start with. I find it interesting that during a historical point when pocket watches were converted to wrist watches. This was an important moment in the development of horology. The paradigm shift that takes place during this time shows how the use of a watch has changed, inspired the technology to adapt to the new usage, and further advance the the development to make a pocket watch suitable to be worn on the wrist, and yet still remains a manual wound watch before automatic watches was introduced.
I’d like to own a modern timepiece that tells this story. It has to be a hand-wound watch, with characteristic of a pocket watch. This already set my mind on the sort of aesthetic I was looking for. It had to have a classic feel and simple in a contemporary sense. Though this sounds very limiting, it does makes my job easier as it narrows down my selections to only a handful of manufacturers and models. The more I dwell into it, the more I realised that I'm crazy about manual watches.
When I laid eyes on the IWC Portofino manual watches, it was love at first sight(s). I told myself, this is IT!
I had 2 choices, and it was not a matter of which one to get, but which one to get first. In my strategy of watch collection, I was prepared to have a dedicated collection of something I really like, and in that way I can focus my resources in building this collection, not to be distracted by other temptations (I know, bold words, I'm curious what will happen later...).
The model range of variants and selections were good. Stainless steel versions are available to keep the prices below the stratosphere level, the movements are gorgeous with some sort of history behind them, the company under the banner of Richemont shows signs of stability and does gives the confidence that they’ll still be around for a longER period of time, they are unique enough to be different, but not that many in the market that it may be too common. I horde things, so, I wasn't looking for anything that has a great trading value.
I pulled the trigger on the Portofino 8 days first, considering that this would be my first luxury watch and something I would wear everyday to get myself into the habit of wearing something like it. It’s a delicate looking watch but carries a great and stable movement that seems to be solid enough to be worn everyday (my activities are mainly in the office and indoors and light activities in the weekends), and suffers a few knocks here and there.
The Portofino Vintage followed suit, naturally as this fulfilled my desire to own such a watch. The FA Jones-like calibre with its traditional size of 46mm, with a huge and generous dial and yet in the same time, with small and subtle lugs that sits comfortably on my relatively small wrist. Typically I have no issues with watch case diameters, but lugs size, thickness and the overall shape all has to work in combination to make it wearable. The Portofino watches are such examples of what seems to be the perfect proportions to me.
At first glance, these are great looking dress watch, but they are flexible enough to be worn with a pair of jeans and polo t-shirt. Both has sapphire crystal back to display their movements and one can see that the diameter of the cases were all necessary to house these large movements. The calibre 59210 in the Portofino 8 days and the Calibre 98800 in the Portofino Vintage are fantastic looking movement that are based on the similar traditional framework of older calibres (this is also the case with the infamous calibre 51011 in a Portuguese 7 days).
Here are some shots… I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...
Both are similar but very different
The Portofino Vintage IW58801
And the Portofino 8 days IW510103
In their environment:
What can I say, I just feel in love with my Portofino(s)….
The background image above here shows the very first original Portofino, IW5251, made in the 1980s and it started off with the diameter of 46mm (a large size, even back then). It had a little history behind it. The product line was conceived from a business strategy back in the days to counter the impact of quartz on the traditional mechanical watch industry, relying on the innovative skills and knowledge of the watchmakers to create a new 'aesthetic' and reinvent a 'classic' watch from existing hand-wound movements. The notable three gentlemen during this time that got together and made this possible was the then Director, the late Mr Gunter Blumlein, the living legend Mr Kurt Klaus (the talented watch maker that designed the moon-phase shown there), and the then Marketing Director and currently a Member of the Board of Directors, Mr Hannes Pantli (the marketing genius behind this watch), whom I had the pleasure to meet not too long ago.
Thanks for reading.
