IWC PORTUGIESER 5007 Issue ? or Normal ?

Morning,

I recently purchased (June 2015) a brand new IWC 5007 7 day reserve. A week ago I was on a business trip and left the watch at home, when I came back -

1. The watch stopped, that was expected, since when I left the reserve indicator showed only 2 or 3 days remaining of the reserve.
2. The watch stopped RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RED ZONE.....I would expect it to go thru the red zone...
3. When I tried to wound it manually , it didn't start immediately, and only started after I moved the watch itself back and forth ("swang" it back and forth imitating wrist move)

Does the above make sense ? or I should go to the AD ?

Thank you

I emailed IWC and got the following response, which does not make much sense.

Dear Mr. .......,
Thank you forthe interest that you have shown in IWC Schaffhausen.
In regards toyour inquiry, the power reserve of a timepiece is like a tank of gas for yourcar; the closer it get to empty the less consistent it will perform. Whatyou have experienced is with your timepiece is to be expected. Your watchwill require a full wind and movement of the wrist to maintain power after ithas been depleted.
We remain atyour disposal for any further information you may require.
Sincerelyyours,

Traci
IWC Concierge
IWC NorthAmerica
645 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10022

There is no issue with your 5007 and this behaviour is quite normal. The movement will stop with 1 day's worth of reserve to insure that for the 6 days that it is working, it will be perfectly accurate. It is a estimated that the main spring, when unwound, can not deliver sufficient power.

Please refer to the following article regarding Power Reserve
All Wound Up

Thank you, Mark. But the article described hand-wound mechanism, that is marketed as an 8-day reserve, and, according to the article, it does run for 8 days (although has 9 day capacity).

5007 is marketed as 7 day reserve, and i would think should run for 7 days.

It's the same principle.
One day is always held in reserve. The mechanism will not run into the red sector.

This is correct. The power reserve is theoretically 8 days, but the watch stops after 7 days - AFTER the indicator having passed the red zone. There is no use having this red zone otherwise - it is made to inform you that now you start wind it manually, in order to prevent it stopping.

As I have owned three watches based on the 5xxx, I can assure you that your watch does NOT show the roght behavior. Bring it to your AD.

I beg to differ. Both my Portuguese Perpetual Calendar and my Portofino 8 Days Handwound will run right to the end of the scale of the power reserve indicator when running out. That is, after running resp. 7 and 8 days. So, to me the watch of Mr. JBGELFAND is stopping a bit early, or the hand of the power reserve indicator is not set quite properly. Not a huge problem in my opinion, but still worth while taken care of when sending the watch in when something else is the matter too.

Some of my watches need a mild shake to come to life again after winding when the watch stopped. Nothing very alarming to me, as the watches will keep on running until they run out again.

Kind regards,
Paul

My 5001 stopped in the middle of the red indication, although it was completely serviced few months before, whitch made me wonder. I took the watch to Schaffhausen and asked the watchmaker on duty about this. He told me, that there is no need to worry. There may always be some variations between different watches with the same caliber and the movement may stop at any point within the red indication. There is some kind of a brake mechanism that will stop the movement as soon as the power of the spring will drop under a defined limit. As not every spring will have identical performance, you get those results. Sometimes this brake will work with a little more or a little less friction, thus stopping the movement with not always identical results. But he also told me that after a break in period the watch may run until the complete end of the indication - and now, two months later, this is exactly what happened.
As you have purchased a new watch I would suggest to give her some time to fully break in.
Enjoy the wonderful 5007!

I think JBW has hit the nail on the head.
I had a similar experience with a perpetual. Twice in a row the watch stopped with at least 3 more days of power reserve showing on the pr indicator. I brought it to my AD who intern sent it to IWC; it was sent back with a letter indicating that IWC found nothing to be amiss. Since those two early occasions the watch has never stopped prematurely.

I would not accept that. Multiple issues with my 5001 were the reason for me also to get rid of it.

For that price level IWC sees itself in, I would expect nothing else than perfection.

I would not accept that. Multiple issues with my 5001 were the reason for me also to get rid of it.

For that price level IWC sees itself in, I would expect nothing else than perfection.[/QUOT

I have to disagree with you, David. It's a mechanical watch. Lots of little parts placed together, by humans, to tell time. There will be variations in performance. Heck, who knows if the watch became magnetized, affecting its performance? Perfection is a nice goal but it ain't happenin' with a mechanical anything-IWC; Zenith; Lange: Cuisinart; Mercedes...

Easy, you don't have to agree. I simply wrote what I would expect, based on my experience with IWC and other brands.

My watch stopped again - 0.5 day before the red zone. I don't think it is normal...What IWC should do ? Exchange ? (since I bought it just 2 months ago) Service ?

Please, advice.

P.S How do I attach the photo to the post ?

As stated above, you should visit your AD, but you might want to wait a few weeks to see if the watch adjusts itself: I do not believe this will happen though. Within the warranty period you probably will be helped to your satisfaction. Watch exchange is out of the question now, I am sure.

About your P.S. At this watch related forum most questions are expected to be watch related. However, I am sure that the question asked the most often, or else almost the most often, is how to post a picture here. Some forum members are friendly enough to repost a post, maybe already 100 times, on how to do this. Sometimes the advice is given to look for such a post, it is hard to miss it if you read the latest 100 posts. The issue is known for years, and a possible solution like a FAQ section describing this has been proposed, and about promised, years ago, but for some reason I cannot and will not understand, nothing has been done about this so far that delivers results. But then, we are just a forum at this site...

Kind regards,
Paul

Don't be impressed by the cheerleaders. If you are not happy, go to your AD and have the issue sorted out. It always worked for me - no matter what others told me. If IWC wants full customer satisfaction, they will fix it.

Hi all,

Wanted to give you an update on the whole situation ...Took my watch to the AD, they sent it to Texas..Texas didn't find any issues, but clarified, that while wounding the watch, after reaching the 7 day mark, one has to additionally make 8 full rotations of the crown, and only then the whole 7 days reserve is fully charged.

It appears to be working. Interestingly, no mention of the procedure anywhere in the manual, or (per AD) in the training the IWC conducts for the ADs.

That is very interesting. Nobody ever told me that either.

Very interesting an useful Information. Thanks for sharing. I am glad for you that it works like this.

Cheers Chris

Hello,

After purchasing this watch from an AD, within months it would stop despite power remaining in reserve BEYOND 1 day. It's had multiple exams by IWC watchmakers/service center, function checks, and most recently a complete service and it is still stopping (most recently with 6 days remaining and then 5).

I've followed all the watchmaker's instructions re: proper wind and wear and still this happens. Clearly it is not operating within specifications.

I'll obviously take it back in, but what more can IWC do if even a complete service could not fix it? I'm afraid they will take it, examine it and say nothing's wrong (again) -- all which will take several months and then my warranty possibly expire before the watch stops again.

Any and all feedback helps.

Thanks-

When I purchased my 5007, the rep in the boutique gave me the following advice:

wind the watch to the full (7-day), and then wind it 10 more turns (yes, you can still wind it even if the power reserved has reached full).

She said this would give the movement enough torque to reach the end of the power reserve.

I have done this a few times before I simply wind it to "7-day full". I let my watch run until it exhausts its power reserve, and when it does, the power reserve goes to "0".

Not sure if the watch I got was a good one without what you have experienced, or the advice from the rep really worked. Anyway, I would recommend you to give the advice a try, and let us know your experience.

Yes I have always done this, the watchmaker stated it's "within spec" to stop with less than a day remaining but never addressed instances where it stops with beyond 1 day. It stops between 3 to 6 days both before and after the complete service/overhaul.

How is the timekeeping while the watch is running?
Keeping accurate time is, after all, more important than when it stops.

Please enjoy your watch and Give it a chance to run in and loosen up. After a few weeks it might approach the red zone before stopping.

Thanks for your suggestions. I've regularly wound the watch well past 7 days into the "8th" day -- watchmaker said if in doubt then wind it past 7 up to 50x! -- and in the last couple weeks it stopped inside the 6- and almost-5 day range despite doing exactly what you suggested.

Funny you ask about time accuracy, that's another repetitive issue I've had, I've seen it gain over +90s in 1 week (+14s/day) even after the complete service when I was told the watch was performing within specifications and the watchmaker subsequently adjusted it a few months ago but recently it's been running fast again. I've had the watch for nearly 20 months giving it plenty of time to "break in".

Objectively, from my vantage of everyday wear, the watch has failed in various ways on numerous occasions (despite IWC watchmakers working many times with the watch). I'm concerned that next week when I take it in again, some fellow in a workshop will perform some function checks on the watch, for 15-30 minutes at best, and subjectively determine (like many times before) that the watch appears to be "within specifications".

I have photos and video of the watch completely stopped and stuck, they've already tried the most invasive intervention (complete service) only for the problem to become even worse!