Excitement in Abu Dhabi!!

What?

the content has to be good given such box. hope to see your reveal soon.

Can you give us a clue? This is too hard to guess.

Kind regards,

Clemens

looking forward to more...

regards,
thang

Well, the purchase has been in the plan for a while...however I could not make my mind up!

The contenders were:

Portofino Hand-Wound Eight Days - the one with the blue dial!
several Portuguese:
Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph
Portuguese Chronograph Classic
Portuguese Automatic
and
Pilot's Watch Worldtimer

Today, I managed to play with all of them and I was torn which one to finally choose.

Portofino with blue dial - the dial is great, however not as great as the Spitfire Laureus Edition (to me still the best blue dial out there!!). I also felt it was somewhat strange that IWC chose to have a black strap with that blue dial by default. Additionally, it does not have a folding clasp - something I quite like.

Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph - amazing watch, which dial colour to choose?? I also felt it may be a little too sporty as I'd wanted a watch that can also be a bit dressy. I already have the Aquatimer 2000 for the rough assignments:-)

Portuguese Chronograph Classic - I loved, loved, loved the photos here in the Forum. In reality, I did not feel the dial was balanced with the very small date. Also, the movement did not excite me as much as the others.

Portuguese Automatic - wonderful dial and movement. Particularly the white dial with the blue hands (there it is again, some blue!). I felt, however that it might be a little sensitive. I do tend to scratch my watches easily on door frames etc. (don't ask me how!).

Pilot's Watch Worldtimer - very cool functionality and I felt it fits great to me as a travelling hotelier! Nice, large dial (or is it too large and thick?) and easy to adjust when travelling. Great strap as well, looks very durable.

Nice attention to detail on the box:

The excitement is rising even more:

Wow, some great choices there! Do you happen to have some decent shots of the blue dial Portofino handwound?

As for scratching and bumping into door frames: none of the watches you mention handle this well. The Portuguese Automatic has a very large crystal which probably scratches less than a wider steel bezel on other watches.

Looking forward to the reveal,

Clemens

OK - some choices. But you made a decision and for sure no matter which watch you opted for, it's a great piece.

So share the joy - reveal :~)

My guess from the little view of the strap ( looks like croc ) is the World Timer. However, if the strap is actually a dark blue, it's the 5001. But if I remember correctly, the 5001 comes in a bigger box.

We shall see,

Andy

I'm really sorry, however I had forgotten my camera at home - hence did not get to take shots of the Portofino blue dial. Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful dial, but it just did not have that "pop" of blue as I had hoped for.

Oliver, congratulations! You finally did it!

I'm sure you would have taken careful consideration on all the options you have there.

However, I do recall your interest in the 5001-07 and you keep coming back to that even after looking at other models, I'm placing my bet on this one.

As all movements have date wheels of about the same size, and the Portuguese Chronograph Classic is not too big, in fact, smaller than the Yacht Club, how can the date of this Classic be very small, unless you consider all dates to be very small?

Kind regards,
Paul

tick tock tick tock...

Of course, for some reason it looks quite small on that dial - just my view when looking at that watch.

Well done Vincent! You remembered correctly... here it is:

For some reason, the blue strap and hands do not show in the photos. I promise to deliver some daylight shots very soon... here are a few angles, however: