IWC - IW5041-01

Portugieser Siderale Scafusia

Case

Dial

Description

he Portuguese Siderale Scafusia is the most exclusive and complicated mechanical watch ever made by IWC. It took the project team at IWC Schaffhausen 10 years to develop and build this spectacular masterpiece. The dial, in the style of a classic Portuguese, features a constant-force tourbillon together with displays for the 96-hour power reserve and sidereal time. This deviates from normal solar time by just under four minutes each day and, among other things, is needed if we wish to find the same star each night in the same position.

The reverse side of the Portuguese Siderale Scafusia is a fabulous astrolabe calculated precisely to reflect the owner's wishes. From a previously defined location, the rotating night-sky disc shows more than 500 stars and constellations with such detail and precision that it would quicken the pulse of any astronomer. Making the necessary allowances for summer time and winter time, the watch also displays the times of sunrise and sunset, sidereal time and a perpetual calendar with the leap years. In view of the enormous amount of work involved and the more than 200 individual configurations possible, only a few watches are produced each year.

Movement

The imposing constant-force tourbillon gives the viewer a fascinating inside view of the delicately balanced mechanism. The tourbillon's cage and upper section are made of titanium. The rhodium-plated escape-wheel and nickel-silver stop-wheel bridge are painstakingly hand-chamfered.

The brushed bottom plate is inlaid with the ?Probus Scafusia? stamp C ?Good, solid craftsmanship from Schaffhausen? C IWC's official seal of quality first used in 1903. The retaining plate and power reserve plate are sandblasted and rhodium-plated.

The plate for the astronomical module is likewise made of blasted, rhodium-plated nickel silver. It holds all the displays and technical parts such as wheels, levers and bridges that are needed on the rear side.

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