Oh no, where is the moon?

Dear friends,

Finally, after months searching, here is my newest addition to the small IWC collection. Since none of the local boutiques or a few of the ADs I talked to could locate one, I decided to get help from a small family-owned shop in Beverly Hills to track one down. This came as tagged new in an open box with all documents but, unfortunately, without the IWC 2 year warranty. I also got a reasonable deal coming close to the internet prices out of NY. A risk but perhaps worth it since I badly wanted to add this to my collection and had to at least see one in person before swiping the credit card.

And thanks to Eduardo at the South Coast Plaza IWC Boutique I know some background to this time piece. It was assembled and came from Schaffhausen to a AD in US in late 2009, but that AD lost the dealer status in late 2011. This has never been serviced or anything, but I am also not sure where it was for a couple of years when it was this AD, but it is running great. I have tracked time over a four day period and possibly lost about two seconds.

And about the missing moon, I took the photos with an iPhone yesterday when it was new moon.

Hope you all have a good weekend,

Ray

You'll love it, Ray. There is a bit of a following here for this watch. Here is my VC Portofino, new moon as well. And since we are talking new moon, here is my Portuguese Perpetual as well.

I love the Portofino line and that VC model is a great piece/find!
Congratulations - a nice addition to any collection.

Congratulations. Beautiful watch. All 3 of them actually.

Well done Ray, that's a fantastic one there, the best of the VC in my opinion!
Wear it in good health!

Congratulations Ray, great watch! Enjoy and wear it in good health.

Kind regards,

Clemens

Super news that you found one. It's a lovely watch. Enjoy!

Welcome to the VC Portofino Club. It is a great moonphase IWC. I trust you will enjoy yours as much as I do mine. Wear yours in good health.

The backside is an beautiful as the dial side.

Getting close to a new moon...the waxing phase.

Really nice timepiece. Does it wear big? The 46mm is quite big right?

The VC Portofino is 46 mm as you noted, but it is a thin watch at 11 mm. The Big Pilot is 46.2 mm and 15.8 mm thick. I have a relatively normal size flat wrist. The VC fits very comfortably. Since it is thin, it fits nicely under shirt cuffs.

You have some of the best shots of this watch Bill B. (especially the closeup of the moon phase). Looks like you use a light box? Can you share some of your techniques, especially your lighting?

Email me and I will send you a reply as it's a bit OT to get into Photo talk here. I have worked with a couple of other Forum members to trade ideas of how to improve our photography.

My email is wrbarker at gmail dot com.

That's not looking very/too big indeed! Generally everything above 44mm scares me, but perhaps this would be not too big at all.

Stunning, again!

Congratulations, Ray!

A truly classic beauty this Portofino.

Ray, a stunning piece indeed. You did well to secure it and it's one of the more popular pieces on the forum here.

Wish you well to wear it in good health.

Thanks all, this is definitely a fun piece to wear.

I am well aware of the past discussions related to the crown size and the availability of a large crown (though unclear what the costs are and how long it takes for a replacement). I am also aware of the postings here with simple attachments. Here is my 20-cent solution, not sure if a $10k watch is worthy of this treatment but this screw anchor is the best thing I could find lying around. It fits over the crown perfectly without touching the case, with some practice the crown can be pulled out, and the anchor can be released easily. I will look into a crown upgrade one of these days.

Cheers,

Ray

Ray, I like your creativeness and the fact that it doesn't touch the casing for potential scratching/damage.

Perhaps IWC will see this "tool" and come up with a version that they could produce. It would look cool with the IWC branding on it. They could make them available at the Boutique/AD's as a promo item.

Wizard Ray in L.A. !

Andy

That's brilliant, Ray! I'm gonna try your method tomorrow morning when I do the winding ritual...

Whoeha LOL
Loving the winding method(!)
Just used it on my AT's.......

Guess what...........

IT WORKS PERFECT

cheers

I had a similar solution (cap from a needle), but your is more universally obtainable.

Based on some quick searches it looks like there are commercially available crown-winders that can easily do this trick. Cheapest ($7) is one by a company famous for watch repair tools. I just ordered one just to give it a try. It apparently has a spring-loaded chuck at one end that can open up from a button at the other to grab different-sized crowns and one rotates the stick as in my 20-cent screw anchor version.

I also just searched the USPTO patent database and there are at least twelve crown-winder patents issued over the last 15 or so years, including winders that can be programmed to store long-term mechanical watches similar to automatic winders (ie crown attachment remains in place and rotates a preprogrammed number of revolutions a day or two). I saw one or two that claims to set the date and time through mechanical pulling of the crown and electronic programming of the motor. Many of these are clearly not commercially available.

Ray