Just short of two weeks ago, fledgling internet auction site watchcollecting.com brought the virtual hammer down on an as-new, bagged and sealed Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 1A-010 for a bid of £82,500, more than three times the model's RRP.
As any Patek fan will tell you, that particular 5711 reference was among the most coveted steel sports watches on the market and demand had become so great and the “waiting list” so long that brand president Thierry Stern axed it at the start of the year. We know from interviews that he wanted to fix the fact that hype around the model was overshadowing every other watch in his range.
The audacious move inevitably sent values of preowned examples soaring even higher and lit the blue touch paper on a firestorm of internet speculation about what the replacement for the classic 40mm steel-cased, blue-black dial, small date revamp of the original Gérald Genta-designed 3700/1 of 1976 would be.
All the recognised experts spoke and we now know that most missed the target. Only Instagram's Jasem Al Zeraei, AKA @patekaholic (the man credited with breaking the news of the original's demise), predicted that the replacement would be very like the old watch, but with a green dial.
He was proved right within minutes of today's start of Watches And Wonders 2021, when Patek unveiled four new versions of the Nautilus. There's the ref 5990/1R, a rose-gold flyback chronograph travel time costing £81,970; the 5711/1300A, a version of the 5711 with a diamond-set bezel (£72,860); and the 7118/1450R, a high-jewellery Nautilus that will set you back £282,340.
The one that people care about most, of course, is the replacement for the “iconic” 5711-1A-010 – and it's called the 5711/1A-014. An almost identical number for an almost identical watch, but with a “sunburst” olive-green dial instead of the classic blue-black one.
The case remains the same, as does the 26-330SC movement first used in 2019. And the price? It's £26,870, which is £910 more than the discontinued model.
If you're pondering whether it lives up to the hype, don't forget that it wasn't Patek Philippe who caused that hype. It was the same watch fans whose obsession for the model turned it into a commodity in the first place.
That the green dial version will ever achieve the same god-like status as the blue/black seems doubtful. That Patek will automatically be able to sell every single one it makes does not.
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