2017
IWC
PANERAI
INTRODUCES THE
Celebrates 150
Years With a
Special
Collection
1815 TOURBILLON
HANDWERKSKUNST
THE MEN’S MODEL Roger Dubuis is
showing just prior to the January SIHH
is a second-generation non-tourbillon
Excalibur skeleton timepiece called
Excalibur Automatic Skeleton By
Carbon.
Michael Thompson
The new watch is powered by the
same skeletonized automatic move-
ment that debuted in 2015. But this
year the watch itself is clad in a high-
tech composite known as carbon fiber
sheet molding compound (SMC). This
material is produced by compressing
carbon fibers with resin and steel that
have been
molded
extremely ITS
high
IN 2018
IWC at
CELEBRATES
150TH YEAR AS A WATCHMAKING COMPANY.
temperatures.
The resulting
material
To celebrate,
the Schaffhausen-based
watchmaker plans to unveil a
is then reworked
white and and
blue compounded
Jubilee collection at the Salon International de la Haute
with resin.
Horlogerie (SIHH) mid-January in Geneva. This collection includes a
The newly
somewhat
tech-
total of sporty,
twenty-seven
limited-edition
models from the Portugieser,
nical piece
last year
debuted
in a and Da Vinci families.
Portofino,
Pilot’s
Watches
dressier rose
case.
IWC gold
looked
to This
the year’s
imprinted dials and blue hands from the first
models Portugieser
are both harder
and (The
lighter
models
1939 reference IW325) for inspiration when
than those
models
even
the anniversary watches. As a result, all the
creating
many
of though
these new
watch’s watches
primary in
components,
notably
the collection
are fitted with either a white dial and blued
its 42mm
round
skeletonized
hands
or shape,
a blue dial
with rhodium-plated hands, and are finished with
movement
(with
internal
star shape),
black
alligator
leather
straps. Each model also bears the Anniversary
fluted bezel,
triple “150
lugs and
Dauphine-
inscription
Years”
either as a medallion or as an engraving.
type gold
hands, you’ll
remain.
However
this
Below
find
a short introduction
to the five models in this collec-
newly sporty
interpretation
features to preview prior to the SIHH. (IWC Pilot
tion IWC
is making available
blackens
the gold
watch
fans, hands
you’ll and
need adds
to wait just a few more weeks).
red-tips and a hot red minute track
around IWC
the dial.
TRIBUTE TO PALLWEBER EDITION 150 YEARS
The watch’s
RD820SQ
automatic new watches in this anniversary collection,
There are
many impressive
skeleton but
caliber
is equipped
with
an the opportunity to see the debuts, this
for many
who have
had
openworked
of the
micro-
piece version
stands out
from
the others. In an inspired revival of one of the
rotor Roger
introduced nineteenth
in
firm’s Dubuis
most successful
century watches, IWC has remade its
2005. Despite
being
newly
skeleton-
Pallweber
digital
display
(jumping hours and minutes) pocket watch
ized (since
2015) a the
rotor
still delivers
to create
new
wristwatch
unlike anything you’ve seen cross the IWC
the same
winding
power
as its non-
sales
shelf in
the past.
skeletonized brother, and both
maintain the equivalent winding
power of a central rotor.
70 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | WINTER 2018
In 1884, IWC started producing the first Pallweber handless pocket
watches after it retained the caliber’s license from its inventor Josef
Pallweber, an Austrian engineer. During the first half of the 1890s IWC
manufactured about 20,000 of them.
This first-ever (for IWC) wrist-sized Pallweber (45mm by 12mm) is
updated with the IWC-manufactured 94200 caliber that features a
patent–pending new solution for the digital display that, while seem-
ingly a simple visual presentation, is actually sophisticated.
While toothed cogs moved the discs in the historic Pallweber pocket
watches, IWC has updated the system with a more efficient solution.
The impulse that advances the single-minute disc is now supplied
by a separate wheel train with its own barrel, which differs from that
standard single-barrel power behind most wristwatches. A release
mechanism that establishes a connection to the watch’s main wheel
train unlocks the train every 60 seconds and then immediately locks it
again. After ten minutes, the single-minute disc moves the 10-minute
disc forward by one position. Every 60th minute, the hour ring jumps to
the next numeral.
Because of this separation of power and its built-in efficiencies, the
watch offers strong precision and impressive sixty-hour power reserve.
The IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” (Ref. IW505002)
is built with a red gold case, a white dial with a lacquered finish, white
display discs, and a blued seconds hand. The watch is available in a
limited edition of 250 in red gold, 500 in steel and 25 platinum-
cased editions.