Hello All,

I have a 3 month old Portofino 8 day reserve (mechanical, not automatic). It is under warranty but, for now, I have no place to take it to here in Michigan so I wanted to ask @Archer or any knowledgeable member about a little issue.

The watch keeps perfect time. There is no issue there. No issue with winding. Date wheel and setting is smooth and works perfect but, when setting the time, and ONLY when setting the time the crown increases in resistance as you move go along setting the time.

This was not the case to start with. If I have not used the watch in a while when I set the time I always go once around the 12 O'clock time to make sure I'm not setting on the AM and then at noon the date will change or setting in the evening to find the date does not change at midnight. So about a week ago I started to set it and as I moved through the 24 hour cycle it started to get harder and harder in resistance up to the point that it really feels like the crown is going to get locked. The interesting thing is at that point if you set it to start then the watch continues to perform perfectly, so the resistance only affects the setting mechanism.

I'm not looking to resolve it on my end, I'll send it to IWC. I am just curious as tom what may be going on.

Thank you for any insight.

S

 

In my experience this can happen if the seal on the crown is a little dry, so it may need some silicone grease.

But even with properly greased seals, I've had some watches that have done this - one is my vintage Rolex 1680. Because there's no quick set or even semi-quick set, it takes a lot of turns of the crown sometimes to set the date, and if I have to go through more than say 5 or 6 days, the crown does tighten up significantly. But if I let it sit for even a few minutes, it loosens right up again.

I think the seals in the crown get warm from the friction involved, and they expand slightly, making things tighter. I know I have placed lots of silicone grease in there, so it's just something that happens. Unless it doesn't go back to normal after leaving it for a while, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Cheers, Al

 

it doesn’t go back to normal which makes me think maybe one of those seals
May have just slipped out of place ( if that’s a thing)

Thank you for the feedback as it makes me think that the movement would be unaffected. I say this fully aware that neither you nor I can make that call without opening it, and that you are not implying that either, but I’m just being hopeful.