Earlier this year, we discussed why the IWC Portofino should be the first watch in your collection. Today, we are going to look at the classic Portofino’s big brother, the Portofino Hand-Wound Moon Phase from IWC. Introduced discretely at the beginning of the year, the new Portofino (ref. 5164) is the completion to the collection which has, until now, been missing for three decades.
The original Portofino Moon Phase (Ref. 5251) debuted in 1984 with the complication located at 3 o’clock on the face. The Portofino was exceptionally large, powered by a pocket watch movement which IWC turned ninety degrees and inserted into a wrist watch case. Indeed, you could only truly call the original Moon Phase a wristwatch because the movement was placed in a case and featured a leather strap so that it could be worn around the wrist. In character, size, and all other aspects, it was a pocket watch operating in wrist watch clothing.