Galli Uhren Bijouterie AG
Theaterstrasse 16, on Bellevue
CH-8001 Zurich
Tel: +41 44 262 04 10
Fax: +41 44 252 49 96
In 1939, two businessmen from Portugal placed an order with IWC for a series of large wristwatches that were to run as precisely as a marine chronometer. The captains and officers of the Portuguese merchant navy wanted a “seriously big watch” to wear on their wrists.
The captains and officers of the Portuguese merchant navy wanted a “seriously big watch” to wear on their wrists. Schaffhausen’s design engineers decided to put the men’s pocket watch 74 calibre into a wristwatch case. The first Portugieser, Reference IW325, had a case diameter of 41.5 millimetres and far exceeded the dimensions of conventional wristwatches of the era.