From its inception back in the 1939 at the request of Portuguese business men who wanted a pocket watch sized wristwatch for seafaring, the Portuguese was born with the reference 325. This was a large wrist watch for its time at 43mm and is defined by the railroad track markers around the dial and small seconds hands. Over the years, there have been many models but the size was always on the larger side, with few exceptions.
For 2020, IWC decided to take down the size to a nice 40.4mm case and does not include a date! Besides that, the automatic movement is interesting for the sub seconds hand since the last time IWC had this was the reference 3531 in 1998 powered by the JLC 892 movement with a diameter of 35mm, which might be on the smaller side now. IWC also have the Portugieser 7 day automatic refrence 5007, but it wears much larger than its 42.3mm case size due to the thin bezel and the watch is also tall at 14.1mm.
Powering the watch inside is the relatively new caliberCaliber The caliber ('movement') is the heart and engine of a watch. It consists of a number of interconnected components that work together. Energy is transmitted through the gear train, to the escapement mechanism. The escapement mechanism releases this energy in a controlled manner. This drives the gear train, which ultimately rotates the hands of the watch and keeps time. [More Info] 82200, with a 60 hour power reserveRéserve de marche Also known as Power Reserve. A watch's power reserve refers to the amount of time a mechanical watch can run without being wound. The power reserve of a mechanical watch can vary depending on the size of the mainspring, the efficiency of the gear train, and the rate at which the mainspring releases energy. If a watch has a Power Reserve 'complication' it simply means that the status of the power reserve can be seen on the watch itself (either on the dial or movement side of the watch). [Learn More] and Pellaton winding system. The automatic wheel and pawl are made with black ceramic as seen from the display caseback, this reduces the wear and friction as compared with metallic parts.
IWC introduced 4 variances for this new line with three in stainless steel and one in 18K rose gold. The actual case size is measured at 40.4mm and 12.4mm thick. These watches will be available starting in June with a retail price of $7,250 for the steel and $16,900 for the rose gold.
More info here.
Smaller Wrists Rejoice!