Things weren’t looking so great for the watch industry at the beginning of the 1930s. The export business declined dramatically between 1929-1932 thanks to the devastating effects of the Great Depression. For watch brands that meant adapt or die.

To avoid the latter, by the late 1930s IWC was desperately trying to find other European markets to distribute its watches. Enter the now-legendary Rodrigues and Antonio Teixera from Portugal with a very specific request – apparently Portuguese men were expressing a rather fashion-forward desire for a large wristwatch with all the timekeeping precision of a pocket-watch.

To answer their – and in turn many other’s – calls, IWC’s watchmakers came up with the Mod.228 (which was later renamed the Portuguese, before being renamed again to Portugieser). Now one of IWC’s most lauded collections alongside its pilot watches, the Portugieser family offers up some of the most incredibly elegant, sophisticated takes on the sports watch money can buy. Looking for a new heirloom piece? Step this way, sir.

The IWC Portugieser Back Story

Almost over as quickly as it started, Portugieser (the name change from Portuguese to Portugieser occurred in 2015, but all the watches have now retrospectively adopted the German moniker) production was disrupted by World War II and distribution to Portugal was halted. One of IWC’s main markets became Eastern Europe, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that its new line of watches fully found its intended audience in Portugal. However, when it finally got there it wasn’t a huge success, and by the 1970s it was already being phased out.

“IWC has always been ahead of the game,” says Justin Koullapis, watch restorer and partner at London’s The Watch Club, a renowned dealer in vintage and rare watches. “However at the time [it was introduced] the Portugieser was way bigger than people were used to and it took a while for the market to catch up with this group of people who were really pioneering.”