IWC Portuguese or Portofino Chrono's

[P1nsa]

Hi all, new to this but looking for a nice Portuguese or Portofino Chrono. Can't decide which so any advice gratefully received. Also, any suggestions for reliable source able to supply to London.

Cheers.

[tomhorn]

"Who has the best Sub?" IWC version.

 

As always, search is your friend.

 

Hundreds of posts on these watches, and the problems you will encounter with the seconds at 6 movements.

[Nightwatch]

Hi and welcome to the forum. London is a good place to be because all trusted dealers ship there and You will get the packages about 2 weeks faster than other eu-members hassle-free:). All dealers from the trusted dealer section are good to go with, tried out several of them myself, others recommend to choose one and to stay with him. In my opinion Trustytime is a good place to start with because of fast e-mail response, big selection on the website and handling of newcomers, later try out others, basically all TD can get all watches. Read about payment/payment options here on the forum first before contacting the dealers.

 

IWC Portuguese with the seconds at six is a no go as are all replicas with seconds at six (Rolex Daytona). The movement used is not adequate for displaying seconds at six so there are used several transfer gears. These are not always perfectly machined, well sitted and they don´t have extra rubies to avoid wear (read about this) so the movement will break down because one of several reasons in a very short time. This will not only stop the seconds but the whole watch.

 

In this price range (400´s) I would recommend the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15400 which has a wonderful display backcase and metal bracelet. For about half my other choice would be the Jaeger le-Coultre Master Geographic, similar in design with the IWC and with a reliable 23j movement. Different but well-made replica is the Rolex Datejust 2 with Asian ETA.

 

Choose another watch but if You do like the design (as me) and depending where You use it get the IWC with Quartz as a second watch. It´s just about 128 usd, has a reliable Chrono and only the (small) seconds hand at 6 ticks. It´s got a useful date the gen has not but it´s beautiful.

With Quartz there is no technical issue whatsoever and it keeps time to the second although it looks slightly different from gen. Personally very happy with mine pictured below. Good luck with Your choices and welcome to the forum.

 

IWC Portuguese Chrono as reliable quartz version:

 

 

[P1nsa]

Thanks for info so far.

Thinking about this one? Seems to have seconds at 9 rather than 6. Is that a better model then without the issues mentioned above?

[japanic]

Thanks for info so far.

Thinking about this one? Seems to have seconds at 9 rather than 6. Is that a better model then without the issues mentioned above?

 

That particular model has it's flaws: chrono pushers too thick, incorrect day/date font, 12 and 6 hour markers off, too thick overall, and most obviously wrong style hands.

 

The movement with the seconds running at 9 doesn't have problems usually.

 

The bigger problem is it does not accurately replicate the look of the genuine watch very well.

[borz]

What about a gen Edox WRC Classic instead?  The dial is similar to the Portuguese, and you can easily find an auto model for well under $400 on Watchuseek.

[Albranius]

Hi and welcome to the forum. London is a good place to be because all trusted dealers ship there and You will get the packages about 2 weeks faster than other eu-members hassle-free:). All dealers from the trusted dealer section are good to go with, tried out several of them myself, others recommend to choose one and to stay with him. In my opinion Trustytime is a good place to start with because of fast e-mail response, big selection on the website and handling of newcomers, later try out others, basically all TD can get all watches. Read about payment/payment options here on the forum first before contacting the dealers.

 

IWC Portuguese with the seconds at six is a no go as are all replicas with seconds at six (Rolex Daytona). The movement used is not adequate for displaying seconds at six so there are used several transfer gears. These are not always perfectly machined, well sitted and they don´t have extra rubies to avoid wear (read about this) so the movement will break down because one of several reasons in a very short time. This will not only stop the seconds but the whole watch.

 

In this price range (400´s) I would recommend the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15400 which has a wonderful display backcase and metal bracelet. For about half my other choice would be the Jaeger le-Coultre Master Geographic, similar in design with the IWC and with a reliable 23j movement. Different but well-made replica is the Rolex Datejust 2 with Asian ETA.

 

Choose another watch but if You do like the design (as me) and depending where You use it get the IWC with Quartz as a second watch. It´s just about 128 usd, has a reliable Chrono and only the (small) seconds hand at 6 ticks. It´s got a useful date the gen has not but it´s beautiful.

With Quartz there is no technical issue whatsoever and it keeps time to the second although it looks slightly different from gen. Personally very happy with mine pictured below. Good luck with Your choices and welcome to the forum.

 

IWC Portuguese Chrono as reliable quartz version:

 

 

That is a really bad replica mate :-)