Does anybody know about vintige Portugese?

Hello,

I just got a message that IWC CAN'T renovate my old Portuguese that some idiot changed the face on years ago. After 7 months they tell me that they can't determine what the original face looked like and therefore can't help me. Big sigh !!!

I would love to know if there is someone who think they can tell me what the original face looked like.

Is there someone out there who has more extensive knowledge than what they have at IWC?

Here is what I remember. The watch is from late forties or early fifties, I think. The casing was silver color. The face was white. The arms, the numbers and the minute dots where all gold color. The arm showing seconds was at least as long as the minute arm. The numbers where sort of fat and had sharp corners and they had some thickness to them. The dots where unusually large, sort of almost dominating but not quite. The five minutes dots where larger and all the dots had some thickness as well.

I realise that I have to submit more information before anyone can give me a more exact answer, I'm just so frustrated that I had to get my question out here!

It will take another couple of weeks for them to return my watch so until then this is the information I have.

Please advice

Best regards

Martin Jacobsson
Malmö, Sweden

Vintage Portuguese best known and Ref 325

You say that "The arm showing seconds was at least as long as the minute arm". I take it that you must be translating literally from Swedish and that by "arm" you mean "hand". If I am correct, you appear to be describing a watch with Seconds on Center. The Ref 325 has a small seconds' hand at 6. If your watch does not have the seconds's hand at 6, it is not a Ref 325 or vintage Portugieser.

Does anybody know about vintige Portugese?

Wow, thank you so much for your answers !!!
They give me hope that I might be able to get the help I need.

Looking at the picture of the seven watches mine looked/looks very
much like the third from left. Except that, yes, clepsydra you are right,
I mean ¨hand¨, my Seconds is on Center. And my Seconds is as long as the Minute hand.
Sorry for not using the correct terminology.
No I haven't had it authenticated as a true Portuguese. I have however had the mechanism evaluated
by IWC in America in the early '90s as a genuine IWC that someone had switched the dial on.
They put the value of the watch in that condition to 2000 dollars.

The story behind the incorrect dial is this: I had borrowed the watch from my father and wore it at an
Antique dealer fair. There was a both with a a person who sold and renovated old watches and he
came from my hometown. When he looked at my watch he noticed that it had some green discoloration
on the dial and he said he could fix that. This was maybe 25 years ago and I was young and not so smart.
I thought he meant that he could polish it of. A few days later I went to his very fancy store and gave him the
watch. He said it would be ready in a few days. When I got the watch back I was horrified because he
had had the dial REPAINTED. I couldn't believe my eyes. And a sloppy paint job at that. Some of the digits
had white paint on the corners . Of course I told him that wasn't good enough. When I got it back the second time
it had a new dial altogether and the digits and dots where different AND black and not gold.
Again I was furious but he told me that he had spoken to¨ the Swedish Watchmakers organisation¨ or something
and that they had agreed with him that the job was a perfectly professional job and there was nothing I could do.
I believed him !
Time went by and but I have always felt ashamed of being fooled and having ruined such a beautiful watch.
But I didn't know what to do. But now with internet and the growing interest for wristwatches and with some
time to spare I've made another attempt to restore the watch that now is mine. I had another watch maker, with a much better reputation, in my hometown send it to IWC but it is now, after six months on it's way back because they say they can't help me.

I have a picture of it but I don't know how to get it onto this web-site.

Size etc will have to wait until I get it back.

Thanks again ! I will get back with more info as soon as I get my watch back.
Best regards Martin

Does anybody know about vintige Portugese?

I have now looked at all IWC vintage photographs in your archives and from this my conclusion is that unless it's fake my watch is a Portugese of some kind. The one thing were my watch is different is that the Seconds is on center. Strange ??

Does anybody know about vintige Portugese?

what is the size of your watch?

Almost but not quite !

This is a watch that very much resembles my watch. I guess it's not a Portuguese but what is this model called?

Vintage 1944 IWC Men's Stainless Steel Watch

Picture

The picture doesn't seem to appear but at least the link does

Vintage 1944 IWC Men's Stainless Steel Watch

Vintage 1944 IWC Men''s Stainless Steel Watch

Not picture but link.

www.farfo.com/menswatches/Page5/iwcssteel.html

Do you have a picture of your watch?

And what is the case diameter (excluding the crown)?

Can I suggest getting a watchmaker to open the case back of your watch, take an image of the movement and post it on this forum

Cheers from the cellar

Do you have a picture of your watch?

I'm still waiting to get my watch back from IWC. They say it's going to take a few weeks, I don't know why. They couldn't help me.
I do have a picture but I don't know how to post it.
In my previous comment there is a link to a picture that resembles my watch.

Images

Hi Martin,

Two of your images are above. If the first image is actual size the band width can be measured at 18mm which would mean the case size is under 35mm, too small to be an original Portuguese.

When you get your watch back from Schaffhausen please post the movement details, I suspect either a Cal. 60 or Cal. 89.

Cheers from the cellar