Unlike the other venerable Swiss brands, the 140-year-old International Watch Company was founded by an American, Florentine Ariosto Jones, who wanted to sell high-quality watches to the U.S. The Portuguese (named after the two businessmen from Portugal who commissioned the original in the thirties) is part of IWC's oversized range, with cases 40 mm and larger, but there's nothing overstated about the design. The F.A. Jones model here, named after the company's splendidly monikered founder, uses the first movements developed by IWC. The trend of late is to make wide faces for the sake of it, but the Portuguese's breadth stems from the need to house one of the world's largest (and most accurate) movements: Sometimes size does matter.

Price: Starts at $5,000; platinum (shown): $31,500
Other available cases: Stainless steel, rose gold
Year introduced (original model/this edition): 1938/2005
Made in: Switzerland
Case size: 43 mm
Band material: Leather
Movement: Manual mechanical
Web site: iwc.com