IWC Schaffhausen’s Portugieser Eternal Calendar has received the “Aiguille d’Or” at the 24th Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Launched earlier this year, the Portugieser Eternal Calendar is IWC’s first secular perpetual calendar. A newly engineered 400-year gear ensures that the calendar automatically skips three leap years over four centuries. Another key feature of this watch is the extremely precise Double Moon™ phase display, which will only deviate from the moon’s orbit by one day after a world-record-breaking 45,361,055 years. Established in 2001, the GPHG recognises exceptional watch creations of the year and aims to promote the outstanding quality of Swiss watchmaking.
The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, also nicknamed the “Oscars®” of the Swiss watch industry, is one of the industry’s most coveted awards with 15 different categories. The 24th edition of the award ceremony took place tonight at the Théâtre du Léman in Geneva in front of representatives from the nominated brands and press. In the month leading up to the ceremony, all nominated watches were presented to the public during a travelling exhibition in Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, New York and Geneva. The award-winning watches will be exhibited in Bucharest towards the end of November.
IWC Schaffhausen’s Portugieser Eternal Calendar (Ref. IW505701) has been awarded the “Aiguille d’Or”. Since Kurt Klaus created his ingenious perpetual calendar in the 1980s, IWC has acquired unique expertise in the field of mechanical calendars. With its first secular perpetual calendar, the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer now once again pushes the boundaries of engineering with a mechanical programme that covers extreme dimensions of time, touching the limits of eternity.
The Portugieser Calendar is based on the same modular and synchronised design as the perpetual calendar, meaning that all its displays can be advanced simply by using the crown. However, while the perpetual calendar is programmed for a four-year cycle with three regular years followed by a leap year, the Portugieser Eternal Calendar accounts for the Gregorian calendar’s leap year exceptions by skipping three leap years over a period of 400 years. This means it will calculate the leap year correctly until at least the year 3999. No official decision has been taken yet as to whether the year 4000 will be a leap year or not. The Portugieser Eternal Calendar also features a moon phase display with unprecedented precision. Thanks to the newly developed reduction gear train with three intermediate wheels, the Double Moon™ phase display will theoretically only deviate from the moon’s orbit by one day after a world-record-breaking 45,361,055 years. The Portugieser Eternal Calendar features an elaborately finished platinum case. Box-glass sapphire crystals on the front and the back beautifully showcase the transparent glass dial and the IWC-manufactured 52640 calibre inside.
“We are thrilled to win this award for the Portugieser Eternal Calendar. Building on the emblematic crown-controlled perpetual calendar that Kurt Klaus developed in the 1980s, we have pushed the limits for mechanical calendar complications once again. We have engineered more than just a concept. Despite its tremendous complexity, the Portugieser Eternal Calendar is a watch we are actually producing, and our customers are wearing every day. My thanks go to our teams in research and innovation, design and development, simulation and testing, and, of course, manufacturing. This watch would not have been possible without your passion and determination.”
