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, replica Patek Philippe watches UK 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 watch arguably most instrumental in reigniting our love affair with the artistry of traditional watchmaking.
Despite its controversial design, the Nautilus proved to be incredibly popular and Genta is recognised as arguably the greatest perfect clone Patek Philippe watches 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.
Eventually, Stern decided to take the risk. But the complexity of the Nautilus meant it would be a further two years before the replica watches 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.
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 AAA+ copy Patek Philippe 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.
It is also a highly versatile piece, in any of its now many guises. Countless perfect fake Patek Philippe 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 watches 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.
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 cheap replica watches 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.