IWC Portuguese Split Seconds Chronograph Ref.3712

The IWC Portuguese Split Seconds Chronograph has been one of my favorite for the last couple of months. This watch, in my opinion, is truly a masterpiece.

It was built in a period when, like one of my friends used to say “they didn’t have a website yet”. After a research based on its serial number, the manufacturing date is 1995. Due to my job in mineral processing, I don’t wear dress-watches so often or maybe not at all. But this one changed my routine and I even started to wear shirts instead of t-shirts and hoodies, making my wife happy that I finally have an acceptable look for a 38 years old man.

Now let’s talk about the watch. Its size is 41 mm with an elegant 12.3 mm thickness, therefore perfect for my small wrist. The stainless steel case is very classy and well balanced. The alternations of brushed and polished steel accentuate its beautiful shape. Its water resistance is only 30 meters. However, after the last service performed by my favorite watchmaker, we tested it for 50 meters and it passed the test.

The movement is a manual wind IWC Calibre 76240 derived from a Valjoux 7750, fine tuned and heavily modified by IWC in Schaffhausen Switzerland. The creator of this movement is a person who worked for IWC in that period, Richard Habring. It has no date and only 30 minute chronograph counter.

So, what is so special about this watch aside from its balanced dimensions and the expected build quality from IWC? I tell you what. This watch has an almost magical feature – the alignment of the seconds hands in rattrapante chronograph mechanism. The split second hand, at a push of 11 o’clock button, will appear from nowhere marking the intermediate timing. Everyone that saw this magic was like “now I understand the craftsmanship of a fine watch”. The watch in the pictures was bought preowned from a private seller, whom I met to buy other watch, but he also had this one to sell. The decision to buy this one instead of the other one was one of the best in my whole watch collecting history, above all because I’m wearing this one more than any other watch in my collection.

Cheers.

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