choosing between portuguese 5441 `s - advise apreciated

Dear members, after years of waiting and wanting i bought my dream watch last year, the ever so beautiful portuguese 5001-06.

I enclosed two , technically poor, pics but they show exactly why i some much like the ardoise dial, the colour shading in different light.

From a dark grey that brings out the apllied nummerals to an alomst silvery light grey. And of course al the other beautiful specs of the hands , what should they be called : leaf - fueille- lance- lancet ? the see through back, legibilety and the provenance/pedigree of IWC and its history.
I was set for life i would say. A precious time piece in WG, mechanical wonder of modern enginering in a timeless but authentic design.

But no..... After joing the forum and reading all these interesting post and the pictures with them, i want another one.... just to do some alternating in every day wear, they are to nice to store away i think. After wandering and selecting models from the aquatimer vintage to a pilot (spitfire) mark xv, and the great CF3 ( thank you mr friedberg !)all with plenty of style and heritage i keep coming back to the portuguese, especially the handwound 5441 from 1993. Stylish, iwc pedigree, and the small seconds i love. I find the 5454 to large. Now i think the RG version is the best looking one, but the SS is a almost just as nice. My question is, for regular wear 3 days a week would you advise the RG or is that not donefor such an exquisite and collectable piece, or be more sensible (also financially) and go for the SS ? And less easy to dent because of softer material as i have noticed with my WG .

Second, please bear with me, i would like , through PM please as i read in the guidelines, some guidance on the price levels, they seem to have a wide range, and what to look out for. I would be very nice if some members (Dutch?) can help me here and also to get started something of a network, or help in finding reliable sellers.

See Ralph's and Heikos pics. I love the steel Portuguese 5441 and highly recommend it to you.

Either, steel or gold, will look great. It is a magnificent watch and may be the best IWC watch in the last 20 years. It has history as well as beauty going for it.
Watches get dinged, not matter what the metal, and I wouldn't let that make your decision for you. Pick the one that you are most attracted to. Both could be every day watches, in my opinion.

Go for the gold!!

Thanks Mike and Ardoise, 2-0 for the rg.

Thanks Thomas, 1 back for the steel and the pics were very good indeed.

SS here too, gold is too "old-fashioned" for me.

the gold is beautiful, but I'd go for the steel...I find the gold numerals contrast to the steel case just perfect...it makes the watch also in my opinion more versatile for daily uses whereas the gold is quite festive...
at the end of the day it's really up to you..
good choice and don't forget to place the photose in due time..
cheers,
yitzhak

Thanks Yitzhak and Ms s,

festive v versatile summs it all up, and i will grind some more on the matter.

Thanks also to Mike and Dick for all the extra information!

Hallo Roald,

Well, I'm not a 'gold' guy but do have the same white gold 5001 ;-)

In my experience the SS and RG 5441's are rather close in price, mainly because they are so collectable and relatively expensive for a non-complicated watch.
I actually owned a SS 5441 myself and will PM you with some info regarding price points and sites/dealers to trust.

Groeten,

Bob

PS: few pictures to warm you up ;-)

Those are great pictures Bob, thank you !
I have not seen pictures before that show the gold hands and numerals as good as these do. They show excatly what Yitzhak meant i think.

Dank !

Hi Roald,

Also love the simplicity and clean look of the small seconds on a 5441.
Have you tried the 5454? Although the 44mm sounds large, it wears like a much smaller watch because it's fairly thin.

I went for the black 5454. The silver plated one with gold numbers and hands is a little bit to classic for me.

(I've sent you an email with some information regarding a retailer)

Bob, great pics of this classic beauty!

Here's one way to look at it: the originals were all steel, so for me steel is more authentic even if the other medals are quite beautiful. As far as frequency of wear, there are no rules so wear it frequently and enjoy doing so.

Let us know what you decide.

Terry