The forum is not a marketplace for IWC watches, but this one is that special I wanted to make an exception :
A Portofino ref 5251 which belonged to Gunter Blumlein is on auction. For the collectors who like provenance, it can't get any better.
www.phillips.com/detail/iwc/CH080524/1
The present Portofino reference 5251 is historically important in more ways than one. Not only was it the model that debuted the Portofino line in 1984 but most importantly it was bought by Gunther Blumlein on 20 December 1991 -most certainly as a Christmas present.
This watch finds its genesis in the desire for Kurt Klaus to create a wristwatch using the historic 9251 pocket watch caliber. The result is incredibly avant garde for the time with a 46mm timepiece with a definitive vintage vibe but unheard of proportions and an elegant and subtle dial layout.
When low-cost quartz watches from Japan flooded the market, large areas of the Swiss watch industry plunged into a deep crisis. In 1978, a German company by the name of VDO Adolf Schindling AG took over IWC. The new owners brought Gunter Blumlein on board, an engineer by training, who was also skilled at marketing. He fully endorsed the company's heritage and proud tradition, and ushered in a renaissance of high-quality mechanics. During this period, Kurt Klaus developed the famed perpetual calendar, which had its debut in the Da Vinci family in 1985. In 1990, IWC definitively scaled the heights of Haute Horlogerie with the Grande Complication: among other things, the watch featured the legendary minute repeater designed by Dominique Renaud and Giulio Papi. To celebrate IWC's 125th anniversary in 1993, "Il Destriero Scafusia" was launched, the most complicated watch ever built in Schaffhausen. In addition, Blumlein drove the development and design of in-house movements, such as the 50000-calibre family with Pellaton winding and a seven-day power reserve. Under his leadership, IWC also established the materials expertise that has remained unique to this day. In 1980, the IWC Porsche Design Titanium Chronograph became the world's first wristwatch with a case made from titanium. The Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar, which followed in 1986, was the first watch in a case made of black zirconium oxide ceramic. In February 2000, Richemont acquired IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre and A. Lange & Sohne. There would have been a role for Gunter Blumlein in the Group, but in 2001, after a short but serious illness, he passed away unexpectedly at the young age of 58.
This Portofino has a nice story of it's origins . Rumour goes that Kurt Klaus and the IWC designer Hanno Burtscher were in a pub drinking a local Schaffhausen beer, talking about watches and the idea came to convert a pocketwatch with moonphase that was developed by Kurt Klaus into a wristwatch. The napkin on the table was used to draw the watch and the 5251 was born.
In 2018, there was an auction witht the Pilot ref 3705 that also belonged to Gunter Blumlein and the watch was sold for 53750 US$, like I said : provenance...
