Politician Kim Jong-un spotted wearing a IWC

Few watch sightings carry the geopolitical weight of this one. Kim Jong-un — Supreme Leader of North Korea and arguably the world's most scrutinised head of state — has been photographed wearing an IWC Portofino Automatic 40 in 18k rose gold, reference IW356504. Under UN Security Council Resolution 2321, adopted in 2016, luxury watches are among the specific goods explicitly banned from import into North Korea as punitive measures for the regime's continued nuclear weapons programme. The watch on his wrist is, by international law, illegal contraband.

The IW356504 is a refined interpretation of the Portofino line IWC launched in 1984, inspired by the relaxed elegance of the Italian Riviera village of the same name. The 40mm case and bezel are machined from 18k rose gold, complemented by rose gold hour markers and a clean, lacquered silver dial. Inside runs IWC's Calibre 35111, a self-winding movement based on the ETA 2892-A2 ebauche, offering a 42-hour power reserve and beating at 28,800 vph. A sapphire crystal protects the dial; water resistance is rated to 30 metres — adequate for dress-watch duty, not for the negotiating table.

Among collectors, the Portofino occupies a particular niche: it is IWC's purest dress watch, deliberately understated against the brand's more technically flamboyant offerings like the Portugieser or the Pilot's range. The rose gold IW356504 targets buyers who want precious-metal presence without overt complication. It sells quietly and holds value reasonably well in the secondary market, though it rarely generates the speculative frenzy of IWC's sportier references.

Kim Jong-un's age remains a matter of genuine intelligence uncertainty — estimates place his birth year between 1983 and 1985, making him somewhere in his late thirties. He has been documented wearing various Swiss luxury timepieces over the years, a habit that pointedly contradicts the regime's official anti-Western ideology and its propagandistic austerity messaging to the North Korean population.

At $11,600 USD retail, the IWC Portofino Automatic 40 Rose Gold IW356504 sits at an accessible entry point for precious-metal Swiss watchmaking. Grey-market pricing tracks close to retail, reflecting steady rather than explosive demand. The more combustible question this sighting raises has nothing to do with horological value — it is whether the international community's luxury-goods embargo means anything at all when the man it targets wears the evidence on his wrist.