The new IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph IW3902

I was really impressed with IWC's offerings on display at SIHH this week in Geneva. I wrote about the Da Vinci Chrono Ceramic already and indeed have gone back to admire it some more. Very cool watches seem to be the IWC mantra this time round, although many would argue that they are never too far away from the mark in creating desirable watches. Another series to have been 'breathed on' for this years show by the designers at Schaffhausen is the Portuguese. Already a classic, no-frills mainstay of the IWC range, this time in the revisited Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph, the company have achieved another winning combination of progressive styling while yet not straying too far from unmistakable profile and layout of the Portuguese model.

Available in a choice of rose gold (with dark bronze dial) or stainless steel (with silver dial) 45.5mm cases, the new piece has a sporty personality, emphasised by being mounted on a black natural rubber strap with tang buckle, the red chrono seconds and by the 'T'- chrono pushers.

The dial maintains that 'widescreen' appearance which has been synonymous with the model. It's large applied arabic numerals ensure that it is a clear and legible display. As in the aforementioned Da Vinci, the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph features the chrono minutes and hours sharing the same subdial at the 12 o'clock position. The date is at 3, small seconds subdial at the 6.

The Calibre 89360 self-winding movement can be appreciated through the sapphire crystal exhibition caseback.

I'm not on the IWC payroll, so I should maybe leave our readers to decide for yourselves about the new models.

The Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph Ref. IW3902 features:

Chronograph with IWC-manufactured automatic movement and IWC’s double-pawl winding, flyback function, stopwatch function with hours, minutes and seconds, hour and minute counters combined in a single subdial at 12 o’clock, date display, small hacking seconds, crown protection

Movement: Calibre: 89360 automatic self-winding Beats: 28,800/h Jewels: 40 Power reserve: 68 h

Case Materials: watch in stainless steel with silver-plated dial and black rubber strap, folding clasp in stainless steel watch in stainless steel with black dial and black rubber strap, folding clasp in stainless steel watch in 18 ct red gold with slate-colored dial and black rubber strap, folding clasp in 18 ct red gold

Glass: sapphire, convex, antireflective coating on both sides

Back: see-through sapphire-glass back

Crown: screw-in

Water-resistant: 6 bar

Diameter: 45.4mm

Height: 14.5mm