Monthly Archives: June 2024

Best Quality Replica IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 Horizon Blue Watch

At perfect replica IWC, Watches & Wonders 2024 was all about the Portugieser (which I still stubbornly refer to as the “Portuguese” (as “port-u-geezer” doesn’t roll off my American-English tongue sounding that nice), and that included both new colors and an updated case design. Swiss made fake IWC released four versions of the Portugeiser model with this lovely “Horizon Blue” dial color and matching strap. Each of those four high quality replica watches is given a fancier 18k white gold case – as opposed to steel – and that includes the Horizon Blue IWC Portugieser Automatic 40, Portugieser Chronograph, Portugieser Automatic 42, and this cheap fake IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 (Ref. IW503703). We previously examined the redesigned IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 watches; in this article, I’d like to offer my take on the collection with a focus on the Horizon Blue version.

What is new about the Swiss movement replica IWC Portugieser case? The bezels are thinner, and the crystals have a new box-style shape that allows the watches to wear a little bit smaller, at least in the case of this larger 44mm wide model. The new Portugieser watches are very comfortable and attractive, but there is only so much high quality fake IWC’s engineers can do given the inherent size of the movements. Still one of the best all-around perpetual calendar movements on the market, the IWC automatic caliber 52616 movement is a powerhouse of performance and value in many ways. That said, it isn’t a small mechanism, and IWC must put them in a larger case. The top quality fake IWC Perpetual Calendar 44 Horizon Blue watch thus has an 18k white gold case that is 44.4mm wide and 14.9mm thick (with 50 meters of water resistance). Many people like a watch this size (including myself), but it certainly isn’t the smallest or slimmest perpetual calendar movement on the market.

Little about the overall dial layout has been changed for this generation of the best quality replica IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar. The dial continues to display the time, power reserve indicator for the 7-day movement, moon phase, and a full perpetual calendar display including a current year counter. People like this 4Hz, 168-hour power reserve watch because of its full list of features, as well as its robust autonomy as an automatic watch (with aaa quality fake IWC’s efficient Pellaton winding system) with a generous power reserve. The caliber 52616 movement is further visible through the sapphire crystal display back on the watch. The handsome automatic rotor is produced from 18k red gold.

One of my small persisting issues with the best quality replica IWC Portugieser is the rounded nature of the applied Arabic numeral hour markers. This rounding might be a signature style of the Portuguese family, but it also isn’t always great to have such reflective parts on a watch dial, especially in tandem with thin, polished hands. In the case of this Horizon Blue dial, I actually think the contrast between the hands and the light blue dial is decent. On other models (such as the glossy black dial with polished red gold hands), legibility can alter drastically depending on the current light that is hitting the dial.

Attached to the 18k white gold IWC Portugieser replica for sale is a very handsome light blue Santoni calfskin leather strap on a matching 18k white gold deployant clasp. The price of this watch reflects the fact that its case is in gold, and sadly top quality fake IWC does not currently offer a new version of the Portugieser Perpetual Calendar in a steel case as far as I can tell. That said, some other versions of the newly updated Portugiesers in steel cases, but not with this Horizon Blue dial color or IWC’s in-house automatic perpetual calendar movement. Price for the Swiss movement replica IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 Horizon Blue reference IW503703 is $47,500 USD.

A Quick Drive By On This Best 1:1 Replica Patek Philippe 1578GM (“General Motors”)

The story of the perfect replica Patek Philippe 1578GM is one of my favorite in vintage watches. Throughout the ’50s, about 20 Pateks were given to big-time General Motors execs, typically for 25 years of service. It might even be the only example of luxury fake Patek Philippe adding a company’s name to a reference number and commissioning a watch like this. The Wenger case has angular downturned lugs, but the cheap super clone Patek Philippe 1578GM is set apart from a stock 1578 thanks to its black dial and radial Arabic numerals. Only a dozen or so have ever appeared – a few years ago, I went through the brain damage of documenting all the publicly-sold examples.

Anyway, I was excited to see what looked like a Swiss made fake Patek Philippe 1578GM at Christie’s this week, but at second glance, it’s more of a buyer beware. While the dial is black, it doesn’t look like what’s generally accepted as a legit and original 1578GM dial. Note, in particular, the different small-seconds layout and the stick hands (usually, the 1578GM has leaf hands). Over the years, I’ve seen a few stock 1578s trying to masquerade as the rarer (and more expensive) 1578GM, and this feels like another one of those.

Worse yet, Christie’s copy-pasted its lot description from the last (legit) high quality fake Patek Philippe 1578GM it sold back in 2017. Images for the current lot clearly show a caseback engraved “C.F. Kirkland.” But the lot essay says, “The present watch belonged to Mr. K. P. Smith. The caseback of the watch reads GMC. GMOO, K.P. SMITH, 1934-1964.” However, the 2017 example Christie’s sold was K.P. Smith’s, not this one. Whoops!

This would just be an innocent little copy-paste mistake, but with a watch like the Swiss movement fake Patek Philippe 1578GM that’s driven by its history, it’d be helpful to have the story of the owner, a letter of provenance, or something (anything!) showing that this watch is what it says it is. For what it’s worth, this doesn’t look like an example of an auction house being nefarious but of being understaffed.

Finally, I’m told top billing at Christie’s is a Richard Mille Tourbillon Sapphire RM56-02 with an estimate of $3–5 million. It’s a limited edition of just ten from 2015 that feels like one of the most RM RMs, and if you’re asking yourself if you should spend your hard-earned millions on this or on Sly’s Grandmaster Chime, then I think the only reasonable question is: why not both?