5001 vs 5007 Purchase

Hi IWC Forum,

I am looking to purchase two Portuguese 7 Days Automatic (5001-07 and 5001-09) and I was wondering if it's worth buying the newest reference 5007 over the "older" 5001. I can obviously obtain a better price on the 5001 but I would also not mind paying extra if the advantages of the 5007 are worth it. I am mostly concerned with the inner mechanical changes than the minor aesthetic ones. I would appreciate your input to help me decide.

I would appreciate your input to help me decide. Thank you.

Regards,
George

Hello George, welcome to the forum.

Cosmetic looks aside the newer Portuguese 5007 comes with the 52010 movement and has two very important upgrades -
1. Ceramic parts for the automatic winding mechanism - This should be able to endure more wear and tear.
2. Two winding barrels instead of one - Better accuracy over the entire power reserve due to fewer changes in isochronism of the balance wheel, something which is important in very high PR movements.

Hi Sumit,

Thank you for the welcome and your feedback.

Hi George,

Both references worth considering despite obvious advantages of a newer movment. Especially since you can get a better deal on 5001-07. I do own one for almost 5 years. It never stopped and the accuracy is pretty impressive. Currently -1 sec a day which means I do not have to adjust time for months apart of changing date at the end of short month. I had not problems what so ever.

Hope that helps
Cheers
JK

Hi J K,

I am happy to hear about the accuracy and reliability of your watch. Thank you for your feedback, it does help.

Regards,
George

If I would have to choose I would take the newer one, assuming the newer one is better. Exceptions are when the older one looks significantly better without a technical improvement of the newer one, or the older one is technically significantly better without the newer one looking better. Most of the time these exceptions don't make much sense, as with the Portuguese Automatic. The newer one is quite probably technically better, and it looks about the same as the older one. The newer one will be a bit more expensive, but that is forgotten soon, where the watch will be there for hopefully many years.

Kind regards,
Paul

There is a review of the new Portuguiser in the February issue of Watch Time magazine that may be of interest. Also in that issue is a photo of our own Adam Craniotes.

George, welcome and thanks for initiating this thread.

Let's hope to get a flow of comments to be added to the ones already submitted.

I assume this question is of interest to several of us regularly checking in here at the Forum.

Best
/Anders

Hi Sunflower, Ben and Telecaster and thank you for your feedback.