IWC Replica introduced a 150-year anniversary edition of its Portugieser Chronograph as a model alongside the original Portugieser Chronograph, which debuted in 1998.The newcomer’s case has been given a sapphire back and its dial boasts lacquered numerals; the standard model has applied numerals. The two watches are very similar in all other aspects, including their dimensions and proportions.
The Fake Portugieser Chronograph has enjoyed strong popularity for many years and is one of IWC’s bestselling models.
In an era when gents preferred to wear small and elegant wristwatches, the IWC Replica Watch must have looked like a gigantic measuring instrument strapped to its wearer’s wrist. The first models were manufactured in rather small numbers: after making only a few hundred specimens, IWC discontinued production of the Portugieser in 1958.
If the trend for large wristwatches had reversed itself, the big movement would have been useless. But history took a different turn, and the Portugieser was a big success.
With a diameter of 41 mm, the IWC Replica is nonetheless 1 mm smaller than the Portugieser Automatic. This size was formerly considered to be large, but nowadays 41 mm is a normal size for a wristwatch with a built-in stop-seconds function.