Short answer: a replica IW371646 is a copy of the IWC Portugieser Chronograph from the IW3716 family. The better ones nail the silhouette on the wrist, roughly 40.9mm of polished steel with twin subdials and leaf hands. None of them are the watch. Movement, finishing, water resistance and long-term serviceability all sit a league below the original, and you should price that in before you order.
What the reference actually is
IWC's IW3716 line runs a 40.9mm steel case, a clean dial with running seconds at 6 and chronograph minutes at 12, applied numerals at 12 and 6, slim leaf hands and a printed railroad minute track. No date window, which is one less thing for a copy to get wrong. The current generation uses the in-house calibre 69355, a column wheel chronograph with about 46 hours of reserve. Water resistance is rated at 3 bar, so rain and handwashing, not swimming. IW371646 is one configuration inside that family, so verify the dial color, hand finish and strap spec against the listing instead of assuming from the number alone.
Three tiers, three different watches
Copy pricing clusters into bands, and each band is really a separate product.
- Budget (roughly $80 to $150): quartz inside, stamped dial furniture, hollow lugs, a case that photographs well and feels light and tinny in hand.
- Mid (roughly $200 to $400): automatic Asian chronograph movement, decent dial print, sapphire on the better examples, sharpish case edges. This is where most buyers land.
- Top (roughly $450 and up): clone or heavily reworked movements, better brushing and polishing, correct hand shapes, closer subdial spacing. Still not interchangeable with IWC parts.
What the good copies get right
Case proportions, dial layout, the way light rolls off the bezel, and the overall quiet look of the thing. The Portugieser is a restrained design, which helps a copy. There is no busy bezel engraving or complex lume plot to fake badly. From a couple of feet away, a solid mid-tier example reads correctly to almost everyone. The crown action is often usable, and the strap swap points are standard, so aftermarket leather fits fine.
Where replicas slip
Movement finishing is the first tell for anyone who turns the watch over. Subdial spacing and hand thickness are the second. Then comes weight and the sound of the rotor. Water resistance is the practical problem: gaskets on copies are rarely pressure tested, so treat any replica as splash-proof and nothing more, no matter what the listing claims. Service is the long-term problem, because a clone chronograph module is often cheaper to replace than to repair, and many watchmakers will not touch it.
Before you pay
- Ask which movement is inside, and ask for a photo of it.
- Request QC shots of the dial straight on, the caseback, the clasp and the crown side.
- Ask for timegrapher numbers if it is mechanical. Rate, amplitude and beat error tell you more than any description.
- Confirm case diameter and thickness. A copy that is 2mm too thick wears wrong.
- Check the seller's return policy in writing before money moves.
On arrival, ten minutes of checking
- Wind it and run the chronograph start, stop and reset a dozen times. The reset should snap back to zero, not drift.
- Set the time and watch the hands for a day against your phone.
- Look at the dial under a lamp at an angle. Dust, misaligned markers and uneven print show up there.
- Press the chronograph pushers with the crown unscrewed and feel for grit.
- Do not swim with it. Ever.
The honest limits
A replica is a costume, not an asset. Resale value is close to zero, there is no manufacturer warranty, and resizing or servicing gets awkward fast. Selling a copy as genuine is illegal in the US and most of Europe, and importing counterfeits can be seized at the border, so check your own jurisdiction before ordering. Buy one because you like how it looks on your wrist and you accept the trade-offs. That is a fair reason. Convincing a watchmaker it is real is not.