Portuguese Automatic Red Gold / Boutique Edition

In Context

At 42.3 mm it is sized to the current mainstream: 40 mm is the median across every watch measured in this catalogue. At 13.9 mm it is a tall case, and it will catch on a cuff. The case back is open, so the movement is visible without taking the watch apart, and the sapphire crystal will resist everything short of deliberate abuse. Rated to 30 m, it is protected against rain and splashes and nothing beyond that.

The movement winds itself from the motion of your wrist. 168 hours of reserve puts it well past a weekend — several days off the wrist and it is still going. At 21,600 vph the seconds hand advances 6 times a second, the slower and more audible rate of an older design.

5001 stands on its own in this catalogue — no other reference here shares its base number. It pairs a bronze dial with a red gold case. It was a limited edition.

Pellaton automatic winding with a seven-day reserve, running at 3 Hz with a Breguet overcoil hairspring and an 18K gold rotor weight. Pellaton winding uses pawls driven by a cam rather than a conventional reversing wheel, so it harvests energy from rotor movement in both directions and from very small movements — the reason a movement this slow-beating can fill a week's worth of mainspring in ordinary wear.

27 other watches in the library run the IWC 51011.

IWC

Portuguese Automatic Red Gold / Oriental Watch Co.

IW5001-22 · 42.3 mm

IWC

Big Pilot Stainless Steel / Silver / DFB

IW5004-32 · 46.2 mm

IWC

Big Pilot Stainless Steel / Black / Boutique USA

IW5004-12 · 46.2 mm

IWC

Portuguese Automatic Stainless Steel / Silver

IW5001-07 · 42.3 mm