Nautilus, an unsinkable icon

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Nautilus, an unsinkable icon - Patek Philippe
The years have been kind to the sporty and elegant Nautilus, which celebrates its 40th birthday this year, its design virtually unchanged since its launch. Its vintage good looks have made it a perennial design classic.

The Patek Philippe Nautilus, launched in 1976, belongs to a very specific generation, an enviable status shared by only a handful of timepieces. Patek Philippe’s sportiest watch is in steel; it’s elegant, highly sought-after and avidly collected. And yet on the face of it the Nautilus is not an obvious classic. Unlike some watches that came out of the 1950s and 60s, its design is highly distinctive. Although it bears the name of the most famous underwater craft in literature, the Nautilus is not a dive watch. And with its original depth rating of just 120 metres, it’s also not especially waterproof. No, its success and its name are both down entirely to its personality.

Its appearance has altered very little over its history, unlike some other icons that have been subjected to numerous facelifts. But that’s not how Patek Philippe works. The essence of the watch remains virtually untouched, faithful to the original design signed by watch design legend Gérald Genta. Its case isn’t round, or square, but somewhere in between. The real profile becomes obvious from the back: it starts narrow at the integrated lugs, sweeps out for the caseband and slims back down at the other side. The case is topped with an imposing bezel with lateral “ears”. Reminiscent of the clamps on the porthole of a boat, on one side they protect the crown, and on the other they preserve the watch’s symmetry. And if you think you can see a hinge, you’d be wrong. The feature is intended to reinforce the nautical image. The bezel is neither round nor cushion-shaped: each of its eight facets are curved in a perfect arc of a circle.

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Another key aspect of the Nautilus’s personality is that its metal bracelet was an integral part of the design from the outset. Its broad satin-brushed links have a smaller series of rounded, polished links running down the centre. What very few people have the opportunity to see is the inside of the bracelet, whose perfectly finished surface reveals its smoothness and flexibility only to the wearer. When you realise how difficult it is to create a metal bracelet that is both different and comfortable, you can only admire the effort that went into its design and execution.

The third unique aspect of the Nautilus is its horizontally-grooved dial punctuated with applied indices. Its most familiar versions are in black, anthracite, dark blue and white. The chocolate-coloured dial is reserved for rose gold cases. The hands are a rounded baton shape, a distinctive vintage profile that Patek Philippe has been careful to retain, merely filling them out slightly over time. They help to make the Nautilus a watch that is undeniably of its era. And if we have a tendency to forget that, it’s because it has become so familiar, and because its design is so successful.

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Its success is also due to the fact that Patek Philippe has always been highly selective with this model. Unlike other brands, Patek Philippe has never put all of its movements into all of its cases. Nautilus watches with complications are therefore extremely rare. What is more, there has never been a Nautilus with a tourbillon. It exists in a men’s version with an automatic movement, three hands and date, commonly known as the Jumbo, from the fact that, back in the day, they were considered very big. Today, the reference 5711 has a diameter of 40 mm, which is both modest and typical of Patek Philippe, which has resisted the lure of the oversize timepiece. The company’s speciality, the annual calendar, takes the reference number 5726.

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Ref. 5980 has a manufacture automatic chronograph movement, characterised by its flyback seconds hand and small hour register at 6 o’clock. The latest addition to the family is also the most complicated to date. The Ref. 5990, launched in 2014, includes two of Patek Philippe’s signature complications, and this in itself is noteworthy. The Nautilus has never before seen such a level of mechanical sophistication. It has the automatic flyback chronograph, plus Patek Philippe’s second time zone and dual day/night indicators, and is adjusted by two pushers on the left of the caseband. Patek Philippe made the most of the fact that, on the Nautilus, the left side of the case is taken up by the bezel ears, to transform these protrusions into generously-sized pushers. The harmony of the timepiece is preserved, and functionality is assured without marring its lines.

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It would be unfair to reduce the Patek Philippe Nautilus to just its men’s watches, however. Women were granted their own version in 1980. The latest generation of women’s Nautilus watches was unveiled in 2013. They are available in smaller diameters of 32, 33 or 35 mm, in steel or gold, and they have their own special dials. The stripes are still there in spirit, but they have been transformed into ripples. The baton-shaped hands are replaced with spears, but they retain their curves. The bezel often disappears under a generous setting of diamonds, which may optionally be continued onto the rest of the watch, thanks to the company’s jewellery workshops in Geneva. As an indication of Patek Philippe’s strategic direction, the women’s Nautilus references are increasingly fitted with mechanical movements, which the brand is quite rightly promoting for women’s timepieces.

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