The IWC Schaffhausen is honoring fellow Swiss boat-builder Boesch with a second limited edition watch. The key feature to stand out here is the mahogany used to construct these boats. As it’s also the color of the dial and this special edition has placed a mahogany inlay on its caseback, so let’s take a closer look at the new “IWC Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition ‘Boesch’ “.
Image courtesy of: Boesch
Back in 2008 IWC introduced us to the first piece they made for these top-notch Swiss boat builders, the “IWC 44mm Aquatimer Automatic Chronograph Limited Edition ‘Boesch’ ” (Ref#: IW3782-04). This watch was limited to 300 pieces worldwide and featured a unique uni-directional turning bezel located beneath the crystal. The bezel is controlled by the lower crown located at the 4 o’clock position. A worthy watch for honoring the town of Kilchberg, off the shores of Lake Zurich, where these boats are made.
IWC 44mm Aquatimer Automatic Chronograph Limited Edition ‘Boesch’ ” (Ref#: IW3782-04) * Image courtesy of: IWC
Image courtesy of: IWC
The 43mm round case is made of stainless-steel and features a screw-in crown with protective shoulders nestling it into position. Lugs are short and also provide a tidy feel and look, as they meet up with the strap. A particularity of this boat themed piece is the chronograph push-buttons on the watch that seem to resemble elements found on the deck of a “Boesch 620 Bimini”, which was the ship that directly inspired this timepiece.
Image courtesy of: IWC
Another Boesch homage element can be found inside of the transparent sapphire crystal caseback. As it is covered by a mahogany inlay made by Boesch specifically for this watch, which exhibits a stylized ship’s propeller imprinted on the inside of the glass and visible through its backside.
Image courtesy of: IWC
The mahogany red colored dial has quite an elegant appearance for a sports watch. In many aspects this watch maintains the core design elements of the original Portugieser model, introduced back in 1939, when this model line was still know (as it still is today, due to the recent change) as a “Portuguese model”, not a “Portugieser”.
Image courtesy of: IWC
Time is pointed out with narrow steel feuille hands, while the white stopwatch hand with the flange quarter-second scale can be used to measure short stop times. Instead of numerals it exhibits a classic chapter ring railroad track of minute index markers and steel index hour markers and hands. Hour hands and hour index markers, plus the seconds hand all have a luminescent coating for enhanced legibility.
Image courtesy of: IWC
It also features two sub-dials: an hour and minute combination counter that totalizes in 12 hour counter, located under the 12 o’clock position and a sub-seconds above the 6 o’clock position. There is also a date aperture located at the 3 o’clock position.
