The origins of the IWC Portugieser reference 325 have now been scholarly agreed upon, pinpointing it to the beginning of 1932, where two Portuguese watch importers by the name of Mr. Rodrigues and Mr. Teixeira commissioned IWC with a special request: an oversized wristwatch with a highly accurate movement. Luckily, IWC had already developed and implemented in their pocket watches their cal. 74, a manually wound savonette movement with subsidiary seconds and a 54-hour power reserve. Whilst it was pretty common back then to have a large diameter pocket watch, a 42mm wristwatch was definitely impressive.

The very first IWC references 325 were shipped to Lisbon in 1942 to Mr. Rodrigues, later of the firm Rodrigues & Gonçalves, Ltd. According to IWC, only 304 examples reference 325 were produced with the caliber 74, with a total of 690 examples in total produced between 1939 and 1981. Over these 42 years, only 141 actual Portugieser watches were imported to Portugal. Though prized by collectors today because of their rarity, size, and history, IWC's reference 325 did not enjoy acclaim during its actual production. Historically extremely important, the present timepiece from August 1942 is probably one of the very first examples of reference 325 ever to have been produced by IWC.

The oversized case, black Arabic numerals and blued hours and minutes hands render the timepiece extremely legible and refined. The rarity of the present lot should be enough to capture the heart of any collector, but these elements are further enhanced by this Portugieser's remarkable case and dial condition.