What Makes Patek Philippe’s Nautilus So Special?

The visionary genius. The five-minute sketch. Switzerland’s finest watchmaker. The decade-long waiting lists. The staggering premiums. Everything about Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, a watch once described by auctioneering maestro Aurel Bacs as ‘a temple of design comparable to the Acropolis’, has the ring of the exceptional about it.

By rights, it shouldn’t have worked. A radically styled mechanical sports watch launched at the absolute apex of the Quartz Crisis, cast in steel but costing more than many luxury cars and made by a manufacturer renowned for their understated gold dress pieces.

Work it did however, and now, nearly 50 years later, we can look back on the Nautilus as the one model arguably most instrumental in reigniting our love affair with the artistry of traditional watchmaking.

How it Came About

Like all great tales, the story of how the Nautilus came to be has passed into legend.

During the Basel Fair of 1974, maverick designer, Gérald Genta took a break from the exhibition and retired to the restaurant of a hotel across the street from the Messeplatz for lunch. Dining alone, he spotted a group of executives from Patek Philippe at another table, including 36-year-old Philippe Stern, who would soon take over the reins as general manager.

Struck by an idea, Genta asked the waiter for a piece of paper and a pencil and in five minutes sketched the preliminary outline for what would become a new watch. Naming it the Nautilus, after the submarine in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, he showed his draft to Stern, convinced he had penned yet another huge success. The young heir, however, was sceptical and in his defence, it’s not hard to see why.

It was a model the likes of which Patek had never attempted in their (at that time) 135-year history. First of all, it measured 42mm—enormous for any type of watch in the 1970s. Secondly, it was made in steel and took its styling from the look of a steamship’s portholes, complete with rounded octagonal bezel and ear-like hinges at the sides—all glaring anomalies for a manufacturer which had built an enviable reputation by producing elegantly proportioned dress watches in precious metals.

Despite its controversial design, the Nautilus proved to be incredibly popular and Genta is recognised as arguably the greatest watch designer ever. By the time this quirky sports watch hit the market was launched,  he’d already given us other landmark creations such as the Universal Geneve Polerouter, with its distinctive twisted lyre lugs, and the Omega Constellation, known for its characteristic pie pan dial. Most of all, though, in 1970 he was approached by Audemars Piguet to bring them what would become the very first entry into an entirely new genre—the luxury sports watch. By comparison with the Nautilus, designing the AP Royal Oak took Genta an eternity; he worked on it all night.

The Nautilus Begins its Ascent

Eventually, Stern decided to take the risk. But the complexity of the Nautilus meant it would be a further two years before the watch saw the light of day. Building such an unusual shape while also giving it the abilities of, ostensibly, a dive watch was a convoluted challenge for Patek’s celebrated case makers, Favre-Perret. The nickel-chrome-molybdenum-steel alloy was challenging to work with and the case had to be fixed together with four lateral screws in the side hinges, like an actual porthole. The bracelet alone was made up of over 150 separate parts, 15 just for the buckle, and the whole thing was subjected to nine different polishing techniques. 

Nevertheless, in 1976, the ref. 3700/1A was unveiled in Basel, powered by the calibre 28-225 C, a movement based on a Jaeger-LeCoultre calibre which, strangely, JLC never used in any of their own watches. But the ultra-thin calibre did power a pair of other ‘70s landmarks; the Vacheron Constantin 222 and Genta’s own Royal Oak from AP. And much like those offerings from the remaining two points of the Holy Trinity triangle, Patek’s Nautilus initially landed with something of a splat. 

Stern Goes On The Offensive

There’s no doubt the Nautilus was a game changer, not just for Patek but for the horology industry in general. And like all such disruptions, its success was going to rely on widening its appeal as quickly as possible.

However, in the realm of luxury watches, widening appeal does not necessarily correlate with widening accessibility. Much of the Nautilus’s attraction has long resided in its exclusivity. A luxury watch everyone can afford is no longer desirable, something Patek has known since their inception. From the outset, the Nautilus has been not just unapologetic about its expense but has actively revelled in it.

‘One of The World’s Costliest Watches is Made Out of Steel,’ trumpeted early ads, informing doubters that while lesser entities might be capitulating before the onslaught of cheap quartz technology, there was still at least one brand left to defend heritage and craftsmanship.

That eye-watering price, originally retailing at $3,100 at a time when you could pick up a Rolex Submariner for around $500, became instrumental in its success. Those who could afford one bought one as an implicit flex of status, and those who couldn’t afford one, wished they could.

 Why is the Nautilus So Revered Today?

But why now, nearly half a century after its debut, is the Nautilus still so celebrated? There are a number of factors, some of which we have touched on already.

The manufacturer behind it is one reason, and that has become something of a two-way street. Patek is recognised as the best in the business and has been for generations, but the Nautilus was, in turn, responsible for introducing the brand to an audience which might have remained otherwise oblivious. Even so, they are still less well-known than the likes of Rolex or Omega, singling out the Patek wearer as someone of refined good taste.

Secondly, hand-in-hand with the name goes the expectation of the highest quality. The Nautilus might be a sports watch, but the level of engineering, assembly and finishing is unrivalled—and all performed in-house in one of the most perfectly coordinated vertically integrated production facilities of any industry.

It is also a highly versatile piece, in any of its now many guises. Countless watches claim that ‘t-shirt to tuxedo’ practicality, but few others do it as effortlessly as the Nautilus. 

And the scarcity of the watch can still not be underestimated. Patek currently makes somewhere in the region of 140 different models but with an annual production of fewer than 70,000 watches in total. The brand estimates it is able to meet around 10% of the requirement for the Nautilus with those figures.

At its height, the waiting list for the legendary Ref. 5711, stretched on for a decade. Some retailers were issued just two examples per year but had lists with more than 100 names on them. Patek themselves even tried to alleviate demand by slapping a 20% price increase on all steel Nautilus models in 2018 but to little effect. When you see how much people are willing to pay for the 5711 on the preowned market, it is obvious why. For a 2021 model, the year it was discontinued, you can expect to hand over £100,000 as a starting point. If you want the very last green-dialled example, you can double that. And if the turquoise Tiffany dial is the one you want, auction prices are now in the millions. This is for a watch that retailed for about £30,000.

A Final Thought 

All that aside, the Nautilus is special because it is simply one of the most important timepieces ever made. It may not have invented the category of the luxury sports watch, but it popularised it even more than the Royal Oak. In the process, it spawned an entire collection of models which have entered the realm of that most overworked of terms, the icon. As an example of technical achievement married to a masterclass of design, the Nautilus exists in a field of exactly one.