Vintage Collection Portofino Moonphase : problematic crown ?

has anyone purchased one of these watches and noticed that the crown is a little too small to wind the watch ?

I believe that IWC had a solution to this and offered a free larger crown ?

Yes, this was/is a common problem with these models. IWC has been known to replace the crown with a bigger one, or in my case, they did something to make the crown wind much more easily, without replacement.
I believe you'll just have to send your's in to IWC to see what they can offer.

Nelson

Yes, there is an alternative to the very hard to wind original crown for the VC Portofino. Mme was updated in SH several years ago. I don't know if SH is still stocking or offering a bigger crown. I doubt that it is free.

This is the original crown:

The new crown that is much easier to wind and is larger.

I brought mine into the boutique. they want a fee for the new crown and want to service it. I thought they did this service for free for some owners in 2013.

[QUOTE="Bill B. "]Yes, there is an alternative to the very hard to wind original crown for the VC Portofino. Mme was updated in SH several years ago. I don't know if SH is still stocking or offering a bigger crown. I doubt that it is free.

Bill, "SH" ? what is that ?

SH= Schaffhausen. Sorry for the acronym.

Bill,

lol oh I thought it might be but didn't want to assume

A very simple solution is to obtain a Bergeon Crown Winding Tool.
They come in 3 sizes that will fit a variety of crown diameters and will not cause any damage to the watch.

I have several vintage watches with octagonal crowns that are very hard to wind and it works a charm.

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