The IWC Portugieser's beginnings are a little hazy, but academics believe that in 1939, two Portuguese watch importers – Mr. Rodrigues and Mr. Teixeira – made a special request to IWC to produce a very large timepiece with a highly accurate movement. IWC accepted the challenge and used their caliber 74 pocket watch movement, which is a manually wound savonette movement with subsidiary seconds and a 54-hour power reserve. Wristwatches of the time were normally modest, with a diameter of 36mm considered big, therefore a 42mm wristwatch was positively massive.

The first reference 325s, nicknamed the "Portugieser," were delivered to Mr. Rodrigues, later of the firm Rodrigues & Gonçalves, Ltd., in Lisbon in 1942, three years after the original order. Only 304 specimens of the reference 325 with the caliber 74 were made, with a total of 690 examples produced between 1939 and 1981, according to IWC. The current sample, which was delivered the year after IWC began producing the watches, is one of the earliest specimens to come out of the factory, with a production date of 1939.

The present lot's rarity should be enough to attract any collector's interest, but these features are further accentuated by this Portugieser's appealing case condition and gorgeously aged dial with large Arabic indexes and an elegant pink gold outer minute track, which give this timepiece an incredible vintage vibe.