Not everybody can pull off a 44mm watch—even more so when it’s a 44mm dress watch—and even more so when it’s crafted from a solid hunk of 18K 5N gold (IWC’s honey-hued blend of gold, copper, and silver.) But Dwayne Johnson ain’t everybody, and the IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar (ref. IW503302) looks positively tiny on his beefy 6’5” frame.

Appearing at the Creative Impact Awards and 10 Directors To Watch Brunch hosted by Variety during the 2026 Palm Springs International Film Festival a few days ago, Johnson paired a sand-hued Dolce & Gabbana ensemble with one of the International Watch Company’s premier complications. Though not part of IWC’s dedicated pilot’s watch collection, the Portugieser’s dressier 1940s-inspired silhouette still shares some aesthetic DNA with timepieces used by early flyboys as they piloted their piston-powered aircraft over Europe: The slab-sided round case, stepped bezel, and knurled crown all make reference to the fact that the original, oversized Portugieser watches actually used pocket watch movements, while the dial’s railroad minute track, thin leaf handset, and applied Arabic numerals further help to give it a serious classical bent.

Of course, the ref. IW503302 is no time-only pilot’s watch, or even a chronograph—rather, it’s a perpetual calendar, which keeps track of the time, day, date, month, phase of the moon, and leap year without the need for manual adjustment. (In the case of this particular watch, it’ll require adjusting only in the year 2100.) Commercialized by Patek Philippe with the introduction of its ref. 1526 in 1941—the world’s first serially-produced perpetual calendar wristwatch—the “QP” (quantième perpétuel) took quite a while to catch on given the expense and labor required to make it. These days, however, most major watch brands offer their own take on the complication.