IWC Portuguese Automatic 3532-002 IWC Watch Review

Hi, this is Tim of the 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email me, Tmosso at the1916company.com for purchase pricing and availability questions. Today, we discuss a short-lived reference available for only two years, from approximately 1998 to 1999. The one in my hand was the flagship of the model line, being made in 500 pieces in platinum. This is the IWC3532-002. So a model powered by a JLC889, here doing business as International Watch Co., caliber 887-2. It is a lovely and nostalgic look at the way IWC was in the 1990s. And this is a full box, full paper. So John Mayer, if you're out there, you have no excuses. This is your IWC, or at least what you claim is your type of IWC. It's nice and compact. In some ways, 35 millimeters in diameter, it does feel like a watch of the 90s. It's thin too, at only 8.1 millimeters thick and an incredibly compact 41.5 from lug tip to lug tip with an 18 millimeter spacing in between the lugs. You can see back then when IWC did a limited edition, it also did individual numberings. This is 299 of 500. Now it's got a nice weight because of the platinum construction. And you can see the watch on my wrist, which is 16 centimeters in circumference. It's a good size for a dress watch. This is classical beauty. This is a watch for him, for her. It's a unisex option by the standards of 2025, to be sure. Universally wearable with a tight sleeve or dress cuff. It's a great looking watch with beauty from every angle and on both sides. Take a look at the strap. You can see the strap here is a Jean Rousseau custom piece, considerably newer than the watch itself. We have pull tab spring bars, so you can pop the strap off the case without tools. Calf skin on the bottom. We have alligator leather round scale on the top and a matte finish black. We've got a sheer cut side lacquered for refinement with a monotone stitch. Of course, Jean Rousseau makes the OEM straps for FP Journe and Debitoon. So only the best right here. We have a matching platinum pin buckle. You could see Bousselador made this buckle for IWC. That's what the little B means. And you can see we have a display case back. This was still fairly new at IWC in the late 1990s. This idea that you would see your movement. Taking a quick look, it's a great looking caliber with something that even the JLC version rarely had. A platinum winding mass for greater efficiency. We also have the old and nostalgic IWC fish crown, rather than the later Probus Skeffusia crown. And I will opine that from certain angles in my light box, the crown looks to be notably warmer than the case, leading me to wonder whether these crowns were actually made of white gold. But the case is definitely platinum. You can see it's got a concave bezel to visually thin the watch. It is quite thin. It doesn't need any subterfuge or tricks, but it does make it look even thinner than it is. You can also see a trick along used by watch designers, which is allowing the lugs to ride up somewhat alongside the bezel to ride up the edge of the bezel rather than simply sit underneath. It makes for a thinner watch, but also allows for a longer, more elegant taper of the lugs. That's just a design trick that a lot of watch designers employed to good effect. Satin finished case flanks. We also have polish on the dial. We have leaf hands, vertically arrayed Arabic numerals. This is a Portugieser style dial. We have a little button style or dimple style track outboard for reading the minutes and the seconds. And you can see it is beautifully reflective as are the numerals themselves, all appliques. Leaf style hands for hours and minutes with a lancet style counterweighted seconds and a polished frame for the date. That lovely old International Watch Co. Schaffhausen logo. IWC wants you to remember that founded in 1868, International Watch Co. was the only traditional Swiss watch brand founded by an American, F.A. Jones. Also unconventional in that it sits in the North East of the country where there are comparatively few watchmakers compared to the West and the French speaking West. So this is one of the German Swiss watch brands and there aren't a whole lot of them. So we have a four Hertz beat rate. You can see we've got stop seconds and it is a wonderfully precise movement to set. This is of course, JLC based. There's almost no dead angle in the crown. You start to turn it and that minute hand jumps immediately. We also have a wonderful snap when the date turns over. That's a quality feature, both for the date change and for the quick set. You can see it's almost impossible to see the numerals in transit. Once I roll past the change point, that's quality of the JLC base. Super precision in the quick set. Turning it all over now, you can see the movement itself. Obviously, there's some changes. It's been gilded. It's been equipped with a platinum winding mass, but it is an 889 and you could see that because the distinctive jeweled reversing wheel rocker is right there. A bi-directional winder. It's got a 40 to 42 hour power reserve, a four Hertz beat rate. You could see that it has a Triova style micrometric adjustment mechanism, which is characteristic of the 889s. Five position adjusted to high horology standard and actually identical to what was used on the Ingenieur chronometer that was made with the same movement at the same time. Expect this to be no less a quality timekeeper. This should easily meet COSC standards when properly regulated. It is nicely decorated too with blued screws, polished screws. We have engine turning. We have circular Cote de Genève. We have sat nation on the wheels, polish on the screw heads. It's all quite comely. Water resistant to 30 meters as dress watches tend to be. If you love this watch and can't see why you wouldn't, reach out to Tmosso at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details.