Star Child: The IWC Portuguese Sidérale Scafusia
One of the most complicated watches ever to come from IWC of Schaffhaussen, the The Portuguese Sidérale Scafusia gets its name from its ability to display both standard time and sidereal time, or “star” time. Since it’s star-rise rather than sunrise that marks a new sidereal day (the reason has to do with the difference in distance from the Earth to a star vs. the sun) a sidereal day is a little shorter than a solar day (23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds.) Used by astronomers, sidereal time forges a poetic link between earthly time and the cosmos.
The Portuguese Sidérale Scafusia also features a tourbillon fitted with an ultra-rare “constant force” regulating device, basically a second, miniature mainspring that is wound by the primary mainspring once per second. These devices were invented originally for ultra high precision navigation and observatory clocks.
Finally, on the back is a calendar, a star chart, and indication of the time of sunrise and sunset, all customized to the owner’s home city. The Portuguese Sidérale Scafusia is a superb example of technical know how and sheer beauty, and the few who are lucky enough to own one can rest assured of having something that’s their own private piece of heaven.
750,000
CHF
Jack Forster is the U.S. editor-in-chief of Revolution (www.revo-online.com), the world’s finest resource for lovers of fine watchmaking
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