It’s really easy to claim the Patek Philippe Nautilus as an icon. But one can’t deny this and it really is true. The Patek Philippe Nautilus Watch was introduced in the year 1976 and was designed by a famous watch-designer who can easily pass as the maker of a modern kind of timepieces, that is, luxury sports watches. These watches are appreciated by every kind of collector and it will now celebrate its 40th anniversary. When we talk about iconic watches, it’s great to know a bit about their history.
History of the Patek Philippe Nautilus:
In 1976, when Nautilus was first introduced by Patek Philippe, it didn’t come out as a first luxury steel sports watch. This was claimed by Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet in the year 1972. But this watch was placed at a higher price range, so the advertisements for their first model called Reference 3700 basically played along the said idea, by presenting a tagline with the watch that stated Nautilus as among the world’s priciest watches which are made of steel.
It has a distinctive shape which also drew a lot of attention. Its bezel is not rectangular or round but instead, it has an octagon shape with sides that are curved outwards. It has a diameter that measures 42mm, and the Nautilus has been popular because of its size since it was even 3 mm greater than the watches by Royal Oak.
The Royal Oak had been designed by Gérald Genta for Audemars Piguet. In 1974, he brought his idea regarding this watch to its creator, Patek Philippe. It took inspiration for the unusual shape of the case shape by the ship’s porthole, having an octagonal rounded bezel with “ears” on its case for closure on one side whereas a pivot on another. The watch has grooves embossed horizontally on the watch’s dial and a joined metal bracelet which enhances the character of this watch making it easier to identify. This was when the Patek Philippe assortments almost solely included graceful gold watches that come in classy complications like minute repeaters and perpetual calendars. In spite of all the initial doubts about such a sporty and large timepiece being a suitable addition, this watch was really introduced as “Nautilus” after two years by Patek Philippe.
The name “Nautilus” came from the name of the submarine that was featured in the novel called “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne. The dial and its movement of Patek Philippe Nautilus replica are removed from the case’s front side. It was necessary to be constructed this way to achieve its 120 meter-water resistance, which was high back then especially. The name, Nautilus stresses on this feature and, in a different advertisement, the watch is also portrayed as being strapped around two rather different wrists, out of which one was in formal wear and the other in a diving suit.
Reference 3700 was the leading model of Nautilus which was driven by the self-winding mechanism 28-255, that was established in 1967 for Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe by Jaegre Le Coultre.
Bottom-line:
Having known all this information about the Nautilus, one can obviously conclude that its tagline, “One of the world’s costliest watches is made of steel,” as well as the watch itself hasn’t lost its currency.
