IWC Year of the Rabbit Portugieser watch
By Nancy Olson
IWC is celebrating Chinese New Year, also called the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, in the way it knows best—with a new watch. The Portugieser Automatic 40 “Chinese New Year” is a limited edition of 500 pieces, each with design cues that honor the Year of the Rabbit with elegance and whimsy.
This important multi-day festival, Chinese New Year is celebrated all over the world as a time to honor deities, ancestors and family in a variety of interesting ways. Each year an animal from the Chinese Zodiac takes center stage, and this year it’s the rabbit’s welcome turn. The rabbit is considered the luckiest sign, and people born under it are said to be calm and peaceful, elegant and creative. It follows 2022’s Year of the Tiger.
IWC Portugieser Year of the Rabbit watch.
Portugieser Automatic 40 “Chinese New Year”
The see-through caseback of the Portugieser Automatic 40 “Chinese New Year” features a gold-plated rotor decorated with the likeness of a rabbit: as the watch winds, the animal moves in delightful synchrony. The perimeter of the caseback is engraved “2023 YEAR OF THE RABBIT,” and at its center is a view of the IWC Caliber 82200, comprising 190 components and 31 jewels. The automatic movement has a frequency 28,800 VPH (4 Hz) and offers 60 hours of power reserve.
This 40.4mm stainless steel timepiece provides another reference to the Chinese New Year in its vivid burgundy dial. While bright red is the color most often associated with Chinese New Year, IWC chose a more subtle hue within the same color family. It’s a welcome dissimilitude, in my opinion. The stylishly spare dial has central hours and minutes, gold-plated leaf-shaped hands, and gold-plated applied Arabic numerals; small seconds are at 6 o’clock. The watch is water resistant to 3 bar and has a height of 12.3mm.
The rabbit is on the rotor of the IWC Portugieser Year of the Rabbit watch.
On the Wrist
The new limited edition Portugieser comes with two calfskin straps, one in black and one in burgundy, each with a stainless steel clasp. Watch and leather straps are priced at $8,450.
As an interesting aside, the first Portugieser watch was released in 1939, which was also a Year of the Rabbit, since the animals of the Chinese Zodiac cycle every 12 years (the rabbit is the fourth among the 12). Then known only as “Reference 325,” the Portugieser has since become one of IWC’s pillar collections, with numerous distinguished iterations now part of the series.
IWC Portugieser Year of the Rabbit watch celebrates Chinese New Year.
Year of the Tiger
You may remember that burgundy was also used for the dial of IWC’s 2022 Chinese New Year (Year of the Tiger) timepiece, thus the tradition continues. Last year’s commemorative Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition Year of the Tiger is a 41mm stainless steel example driven by the automatic Caliber 69385, whose rotor is decorated with a detailed image of a tiger, of course.
