My homage to the Vintage Collection Portofino

That one is just the dingy, my yacht

is anchored out at sea being too large for the harbor. LOL.

Bill

I thoroughly enjoyed your post, thanks!! nt

nt

Terrific Bill!

Actually there are some 'flaws' in IWC description

There are some 'flaws' in IWC description of the 'new Vintage Portofino' ancestor, the 5251.

Firstly, the 5251 was NOT launched in 1984 but in 1981.
This is the Portofino line which has been created in 1984, following the introduction of the original Grande Portofino in 1981

Secondly, I find it quite a piece of marketing bullshit when they say that the 'new' portofino corrects a flaw of the 5251, i.e. the Horizontal dial layout.

The 5251 is born form a Lepine movement, true, and consequently has an horizontal layout of the seconds and moon.
That is an inner characteristic of the watch, a thing that today's marketers would call its 'DNA'.
Pretending that it is a flaw that they have corrected, when the actual explanation is that they didn't want to relaunch a cal 97 - derived movement to respect the original layout but instead wanted to go the easy route of using the currently produced 98800 is not a very noble attitude

Furthermore, if this layout 'from a 'watchmaker’s point of view was not quite right', then what shall we think about the Portuguese automatic 8 days. Isn't it the same layout ?

FInally, in the 'improvements', they also write that the lunar phase can moreover easily be corrected via the crown.
This was already a feature on the original Portofino as far as I know.

In the end, I don't intend not to be nice to you and your watch.
It is a perfectly nice watch indeed.

I just regret that IWC has just not made the effort to make a more correct 'new Portofino' which would respect its ancestor characteristics a bit more (like the othe New Vintage do), that they instead went the easy route of using the available movements and justified their 'easy choice' by blaming the old 'flawed' model.

I think the 5251 deserved a better hommage than what IWC did

Still, the New VIntage is a nice watch, but not in line with the rest of the hommages IMHO

thank you for your opinion....

I don't disagree with some of your points, but I am surprised by your vehemence. The "flaw" really was mentioned by one executive in one informal report, and probably was a bad word choice (and one out of thousands). But to blow it up as you have really is in my opinion, a huge over-reaction.

Also, to my knowledge the Giant or Grande Portofino (and it wasn't called that originally) came out in 1982, and not 1981. But i'm not going to blow that out of proportion or get emotionally vexed by that.

I find the word "DNA' the most overused word in the watch culture. In fact, the 5251 had a moon at 9 o'clock as a matter of convenience, and I do believe one at 12 is aesthetically more pleasing, as well as different than other sub-dials which do fit at 9. But to make the 9 o'clock moon as critical is, to me, silly.

Finally, please do not use words like "bullshit" around here, We run this forum as gnetlemen and ladies, and that is not acceptable. You can express yourself adequately with a polite word choice.

Michael

P.S. If you have further comments here, feel free to e-mail me. I don't think additional follow-up posts to this one by me would be appropriate.

Agree on most your views

Michael,

I do agree with most of your points and do appologise for the inadequate wording.

The only thing I don't agree with is on the positioning of the moon at 3'.
If one can admit that they did it for convenience at the time, I think that when IWC "re-issues" a hommage series of the most emblematic watches of its recent history, it should at least stick with what made their strong inner characteristics (I agree that the 'DNA' thing is a ridiculous word and I have used it slightly ironically even if that doesn't really come across well).

So, to get back to my initial reaction, even if the new watch is good looking, I am upset IWC took so much liberty in its reinterpretation that the new watch is quite remote from what the ancestor was (subdials positions, metal, dial colour, altogether very different).

I also think that the original choice of delicate materials for the moondisk and the dial gave a more refined overall quality perception, and will add that I find the silver hands over the black dial particularly difficult to read in many conditions (given their extreme thinnenesss, as per the original, but which were contrasting well in that case, being black on white)

So, judging the New Vintage line altogether, I find it quite a success, but I am very much let down by the new Portofino, for the many reasons explained above.

I would have loved to see it much closer to the original, to the point that I would probably have bought it, and I don't really understand why they have decided to take a more distant route for this 'hommage'. (And I really would like to understand why they did so, actually)

I guess the best thing for me to do is now to look for the original one :-)

Kind regards,

Pierre

Not DNA, but inspiration is the appropriate term

IWC took about the first model of each of six lines, and built six watches that were inspired by them. They built modern watches with an old touch. I think IWC succeeded wonderfully, this effort will be difficult to copy by anyone. I think that you have to merit these watches for what they are right now, as when you buy one, you will wear that one, and not its source of inspiration.

Everybody is different about emotions. As for me, I can get very enthousiastic about a beautiful watch. In the Vintage Collection it is the Portuguese for me, I could write about it all the time (lucky you that I don't). In contrast, watches that I don't like leave me quite cold (hmm, a Dutch expression), I forget about them, am not disappointed, I am not even relieved that I don't have to buy them.

As for the marketing language: it is very clever, they build a special world for you, a bit of a fairy tale. I just recognize it for what it is, read it because it is clever, and go very quickly to the pictures of the watches. They tell their own stories, I build my own fairy tale by looking at them.

So, here we have a wonderful world.

Kind regards,
Paul, wearing Saint Exupéry Chrono

Paul makes some very valid points...

The beauty of the Vintage collection, in my view, is that there is something for everyone who is drawn to IWC in the first place. I do not believe that every decision IWC made in recreating these watches was the right one. For example, I would have preferred that the steel portofino have the white dial rather than black. Oh well, I'll just have to lust after the platinum version.
There is no way I would purchase all six watches. But I sure like two or three out of the six. Now I just have to decide on one.

Thanks everyone. I am still >>>

absorbing the VCP's beauty. It has been on my wrist since Sunday and it is keeping almost perfect time. I am not one to check or care too much about accuracy, but I did happen to check this morning as I was setting the moonphase and it was off by 2 seconds since Sunday.

As to the debate above, the Vintage Collection, imo, is a homage to their predecessors, not replicas. I appreciate the improvements and the more traditional placement of the moonphase and seconds subdials. I am not at all disturbed by not replicating the 5251's 3 o'clock moondisk location.

I enjoyed all your comments and support, Thanks,

Bill

Bill... You have a great watch. Based on your...

enthusiasm I am going to my AD for a closer look.

A little late. But congratulations on a stunning..

watch. Thanks for providing a pictorial essay. It is a beautiful
watch.

A great, great report! Good to see your yacht too!

Great review & personal story Bill!!! nt