The Portofino watches from IWC Schaffhausen have been bringing the laid-back Italian lifestyle to wrists for over 30 years. Now, this timelessly elegant watch family is gaining two new members, a tourbillon model and a moon-phase watch. Today, we are presenting the tourbillon model.

The Portofino Hand-Wound Tourbillon Rétrograde (Ref. IW516501) is the first Portofino to feature a tourbillon, with the balance, pallet and escape wheel mounted in a cage that rotates around its own axis once every minute. The newly developed hacking tourbillon enables the watch to be set with down-to-the-second accuracy. IWC has also revised the geometry of the pallet and the escape wheel, plus it has manufactured the components using diamond-coated silicon, thus reducing friction. This contributes substantially to the power reserve of eight days achieved with the IWC hand-wound 59900 calibre. A retrograde date display and power reserve display accompany the flying minute tourbillon on the silver-plated dial that features gold-plates hands and solid gold appliqués.

The opinion includes a very well decorated motion, known by Bovet as the 11BA12 calibre. It’s a 72-hour power reserve and works at 28,800vph. Truth be told, it is super simple, but if you’re buying this watch because of its artistic merit, complications aren’t that high in your shopping list. The diamonds will split opinion, especially given that the somewhat “masculine” (and I say that really loosely) dial picture and dimensions (43mm), but it seems pretty cool on the wrist. What’s definitely cool is the technique that has become the painting of the dial. Love or hate the ending product, it’s tough to fault the excellent execution of an old-world skill. This dial was painted by Russian jeweler Ilgiz Fazulzyanov on into an 18k gold base plate. It’s my opinion that the Bovet Amadeo Fleurier 43 creates the “are watches artwork” debate simple to win — how is that any different from a painting? And I suppose some folks might argue that a few watches are art (such as this one), and some are just watches (such as the Casio G-Shock), but there were lots of people who laughed at Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup before it turned into a modern classic.You don’t need to like or respect something for it to be art. If it delivers a wordless message, even if it makes you feel something, then I think that it’s worthy of that classification. With a single Bovet Amadeo Fleurier 43 piece available, with a price tag of $196,700 (CHF 171,000), Bovet are banks on one super wealthy collector agreeing that this piece deserves a spot in their winder. Who knows? In twenty years time, it might turn out to be the best investment they ever made.

The 45mm case is made of 18-carat red gold. The sapphire-glass back provides a view of the hand-wound IWC-manufactured calibre 59900, which is adorned with Geneva stripes.
The watch is worn on a dark brown alligator leather strap by Santoni.