79 IWC Extremely Fine and Large, Portugieser, Wristwatch in Steel, With Very Rare Salmon Dial, Reference 325

Estimate: € 20.000 –⁠ 40.000

Model: Portugieser Reference: 325 Case Material: Stainless Steel Bracelet Material: Stainless Steel Year: 1945 Movement: Manual Caliber: C98 Case N°: 1 145 270 Movement N°: 955280 Dimensions: 42 mm Signed: Dial, movement and case The Portugieser design is simple but surprisingly distinctive. Believed to have been created after the request of a Portuguese dealer in the late 1930s, the model satisfied the demands of the Portuguese market for a man’s watch featuring marine chronometer precision. The lot here offered is a remarkable specimen of reference 325: despite now being a collectable piece, at the time of manufacturing the requests were very high, in fact, it seems that barely 250 sales of ref. 325 are recorded at IWC until the early 1970s, meaning that finding such a watch nowadays is a true challenge. This very example has a nicely preserved 42 mm wide case in stainless steel with a snap on the back, big winding crown and an elastic bracelet with small texture. The salmon color dial is definitely charming and probably the most rare variant for these oversize IWC. It also bears sub seconds at 6, applied dagger and Arabic numbers, small outer pelage for minutes, feuille hands and the long signature “International Watch & Co—Schaffhausen”.