For watch fans, the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva, Switzerland is like attending the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony red carpets all at once. The world’s most prestigious watch manufacturers go there to debut their most luxurious offerings to buyers and the press. And a few celebrities have been known to show up and admire the arm candy as well.
The most glamorous event of the 2015 SIHH show was IWC Schaffhausen’s Journey to the Stars gala, where A-list guests such as Emily Blunt, Christoph Waltz, Lewis Hamilton, Adriana Lima and Karolína Kurková celebrated the 75th anniversary of their iconic Portuguese collection. But none of these stars could outshine James Marsden’s shiny new Portugieser Perpetual Calendar reference 5034 watch.
Portugieser Perpetual Calendar reference 5034 watch
First of all, the name is not a typo—IWC quietly rebranded The Portuguese collection late last year, reclaiming the name originally given to the timepiece when it was designed in 1940. The first Portugieser was created at the request of two businessmen from Portugal who wanted a wristwatch with the precision of a marine chronometer. To accommodate such a timepiece, IWC placed a large pocket watch movement in wristwatch case and a legend was born.
With the name change, the manufacturer is also promising a host of new technological and design innovations. For example, at SIHH they introduced the first Annual Calendar watch in the Portugieser family. But the Perpetual Calendar watch is still the real jewel of the collection. Marsden’s elegant timepiece features new design and technological innovations, such as a railway track-style chapter ring alongside the Portugieser’s signature applied Arabic number indexes and feuille-shaped hands. And the moonphase display mirrors how the sky appears in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
With his star rising on the heels of his sexy new thriller, The Loft, and his Sundance sensation, D Train, such a celestial watch seems perfectly appropriate for Marsden.
