Watch Spotting: German Coach Joachim Low Wearing An IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph While Winning The World Cup

July 13, 2014

If you were one of the 800 million people who watched Germany win the World Cup earlier today, you likely spotted the large chronograph on the wrist of victorious coach Joachim Low. Even from across the pitch its a pretty easy watch to identify C the IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph. The German Football Association and IWC Schaffhausen have had a relationship in the past and the manufacture has even created a few special edition watches for the German team, but throughout the 2014 World Cup Low wore a standard black dial Yacht Club Chronograph available to anyone. For the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, a limited edition Big Pilot was the official watch of the German team, so its no surprise that Low was wearing an IWC during this tournament as well. Low is relatively stoic on the sidelines, but when he does wave, point, and yell from the bench his watch is always prominently displayed. Here you can see a close-up of the Yacht Club as he hugs midfielder Toni Kroos after today's victory. The Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph is 45.4mm across, with a brightly polished finish on the tops of the lugs and the slim bezel. The large black dial is dramatic and offers a lot of contrast with the luminous steel hands and red seconds hand. Powering the watch is IWCs in-house caliber 89361, a flyback chronograph with a date display at 3 oclock and hacking small seconds down at 6 oclock. It is automatically wound and packs a 68-hour power reserve. The movements most distinctive feature though is the way it displays elapsed time for the chronograph. Instead of having two registers, it uses a single nested register at 12 oclock to show both minutes and hours. This means that you read the elapsed time like you would read any standard dial. It takes some getting used to but becomes intuitive very quickly. This display and the caliber 89361 are appearing in many of IWCs higher-end chronographs, including the Portuguese Chronograph Classic and the Ingenieur Chronograph Racer.While the IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph is also available in red gold and rubber-coated steel, Low wore the basic black-dialed stainless steel version on a sturdy textured rubber strap. As worn, the Yacht Club is priced at $14,000. For more, visit IWC online.