IWC Debuts The Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph “Summer Edition” Along With a Collection of New Fabric Straps

Summer is here and with it comes warm weather, trips to the beach and afternoons on the open water. IWC has just introduced a summer edition of their Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph series with a nod to our warmest season. This is the latest edition of the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronographs, with previous models such as the Ocean Racer dedicated to the Volvo Ocean Race, an intense sailing race around the world. This year’s models have a more casual demeanour and would fit in with a short sleeve shirt and board shorts, or a nice afternoon sailing down a swath of the Atlantic coast.

A deep blue dial with white sub-dials and a red stopwatch hand (and a few red accents) have a maritime vibe, along with a water-friendly blue rubber strap. The sub-dial at 12 o’clock is the chrono minute and hour counter, while the one at 6 o’clock is the sweeping seconds with a stop mechanism (hacking). This unique chronograph counter positioning is due to the IWC in-house chronograph calibre 89361, but more on that later.

A quarter-second scale wraps around the dial’s perimeter for precise time measurements, while rhodium-plated hands, numbers and indices complete the dial. The 43.5mm stainless steel case (14.2mm thick) with an integrated crown guard is water-resistant to 60 meters, which is more than enough for a swim at the coast or a dive off the stern, although it’s not suited for serious divers. Original Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph cases, such as the Ocean Racer’s, were larger at 45.4mm in diameter. A domed sapphire crystal with a dual anti-reflective coating protects the dial, with a sapphire crystal exhibition back displaying the decorated in-house movement with a signed rotor.

The heart of the chronograph is IWC’s 89361 manufacture calibre with a flyback function at 12 o’clock displaying the measured hours and minutes (co-axial). There is also a date display at 3 o’clock. It beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4Hz) with a sizeable 68-hour power reserve. This in-house automatic has 38 jewels and is a workhorse for IWC, powering many of its chronographs of the last decade, including the Portugieser Chronograph Classic and Ingenieur Chronograph Sport Edition.

Along with the new watch comes a seasonal collection of fabric straps, but they’re not limited to the Summer Edition Chronograph. Pale blue and light grey colour configurations can also bring a summer vibe to existing IWC watches, with two available for Portugieser Chronographs, Portofino Chronographs and Portofino Automatics (blue and light grey). Four fabric straps are available for the Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII and Pilot’s Watch Chronograph (blue, light grey, blue with light grey trim and light grey with blue trim). Fabric straps are available for a limited time only and can be fitted to compatible watches at all IWC boutiques.

The new Summer Edition Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph (Ref. IW390507) is priced at $12,100, which is the same as their standard chronograph edition. Availability will be announced soon.