by Kyle Stults on January 05, 2010
Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by watch enthusiast Eric James. Eric is the IWC Moderator for Perpetuelle.com’s World Watch Forum.
I purchased this watch from an authorized dealer (AD) on 21 December 2009 while visiting my Uncle Jim in a different state than in which I live.
What does one think when he purchases his “grail” watch which, at retail, costs as much or more than most mid-sized cars? I thought many things, such as, “Am I crazy?”; “How will I explain this to the wife?”; “Absolutely no watch purchases in 2010 and sell the others that I have.” It made me feel better to have my Uncle there to help me make my decision. He has a saying “The Quality Remains Long After the Price is Forgotten.” I didn’t feel any hesitation when considering if I would buy the watch when the AD made me an offer that was hard to refuse, so I went for it. With all of the indications on the watch, I don’t really need any other except maybe a work-out watch for the gym.
The IWC reference 5022.13 Portuguese Perpetual Calendar (PPC) is 18 carat rose gold with a brown alligator leather strap and a rose gold deployment clasp. It has indications for the time, day, date, month, power reserve, moon phase, small seconds and the 4-digit year. The watch is self-winding with a 7-day power reserve (168 hours). The front sapphire crystal has anti-reflective coating on both sides and the rotor can be seen through the sapphire crystal case back and is quite large. The watch is water resistant to 3 bar, which means according to IWC’s website, that I can be on the surface of a swimming pool wearing the watch (which I would never do).
The watch has a 42.3mm diameter and 15.6mm height. It is quite tall, similar to the Ingenieur, but not as heavy. It weighs in at 145 grams. Inside is the IWC calibre 51613 with Pellaton automatic winding system, 62 jewels and the movement beats at 21,600 beats per hour.
Seeing the movement through the caseback is quite interesting. With the rotor in a certain position, one can see, among other things, the balance wheel rotating, the balance spring, the bi-directional winding “hooks” and the escape wheel in its perpetual motion.
The dial is well organized. The sub-dial at the 3 contains the date on the outer ring. Only the odd day numbers are printed whereas the even day numbers are dots. The inner dial contains the 7-day power reserve reading on a double track similar to a railroad. There is a small red warning indicator should the owner allow the power reserve to fall to 1 day or less. Since the small hands for these two indications are the same rose gold, although different lengths, the wearer could mistake the date indicator for the power reserve. A nice, lengthy look at the face will tell the correct date (and it is well worth the extra time).
The sub-dial at 9 contains the day indicator on the outer ring. Each day is indicated by its three letter abbreviation and each is separated by a dot, so there is no mistake when determining the day. The inner ring contains the small seconds function. The seconds hand rotates around a ring with a marker at each second with Arabic numerals at the tens and larger ticks at the fives. I am glad IWC included a seconds hand as I cannot see myself wearing a watch without some type of indicator showing that it is working. Furthermore, I think the small seconds is traditional and a perfect fit for this timepiece.
The sub-dial at the 6 shows the month. Each month is denoted by its 3-letter abbreviation. December is at the top and I am looking forward to seeing this indication change over the course of 2010.
The sub-dial at the 12 shows the moonphase, which according to IWC, will be accurate for 577 years. Outstanding! And, since I started wearing this watch 8 days prior to the start of 2010, I know there will be a rare full moon when 31 Dec 2009 rolls into 1 Jan 2010.
One last indication is the 4-digit year between the 7 and the 8. What is spectacular about this is that it won’t have to be changed until the year 2100. I suppose that some time after the beginning of 2100, the owner of this watch will send it back to IWC to have the 20 in changed to 21. More mysteriously, the box includes the replacement year indicators for the years 2200 through 2400 (a dial containing the numbers 22, 23 and 24). The proud owner will have to send the watch back to IWC to have the dial updated around the year 2200. This portends that the watch will have to go back IWC twice in a 100 year period, approximately. I am amazed that IWC considers it will still exist as a company in the next 4 centuries, but it is a nice touch.
So, back to the watch, the information the wearer needs most often can be read left to right and the information changing less often is read top to bottom.
This is my first (and will probably be my only) perpetual calendar. I find this is the quintessential timepiece. Why? Well, one can only wind the watch in the forward direction to the next day – you can never go back! (winding it backward will damage the movement and necessitate sending it back to the factory.) There are no pushers on the case like other perpetuals to get the indications correct. To set the correct time and other indications, the owner must be careful not to move past the current date, or the watch must be hacked to allow present time to catch up to the watch’s indication.
What makes this watch special, in a way, is that it can only show the current date, day, month, moonphase and year at the current second – just like time itself. Traveling across time zones is a different challenge (something I have considered recently). I used to live in Japan and travelled between Japan on the U.S. often. Now, if flying to Japan (12 or 13 hours ahead of the U.S. east coast and 19 hours ahead of Hawaii), setting the time on this IWC is as easy as moving the hands forward. However, on the return trip, one must be careful not to move the hands back until they reach 2 p.m. or later of the same day. As you can see from the red warning instructions included in the box, one must not move the hands backward earlier than 2 a.m. when the calendar function is completing its cycle. If I experience this problem, I’m sure I will either stop the watch and wait for time to “catch-up” or wait until 3 or 4 p.m. of the current day before moving the hands back to the correct time.
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