Designed by Gerald Genta, who sketched the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak a couple of years prior, the Nautilus was Patek Philippe’s reaction to drastic changes in the market for high-end watches—namely, that an exquisite steel sports watch could be a thing at all. The original Nautilus 3700/1A, released in 1976, was exquisite, indeed, with a remarkable 7.6 mm height, a lovely dark blue dial, and one of the most handsome bracelet-to-case integrations ever conceived. There have been many iterations over the years, but most of our experts mentioned the 3700 that started it all.
However, as well conceived as it was, the Nautilus wasn’t a big hit off the bat. It wasn’t until the renewed interest in 1970s steel integrated-bracelet watches kicked off sometime around 2017 that the Nautilus became an often unobtainable and very expensive proposition. It was the steel reference 5711 of 2006 that really fueled this renaissance of interest in the Nautilus, and that watch was the 21st-century tribute to the original 3700. And then, surprisingly, in 2021, Patek discontinued the 5711, just as prices for them were skyrocketing during the Covid-19 pandemic. As dramatic as the Nautilus story has been in recent years, the staying power of this watch, as well as its status as a true horological icon, is undeniable.
From the article by Allen Farmelo, Paige Reddinger, Victoria Gomelsky, Oren Hartov, Blake Buettner
