From the Editor: Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1A is Finally 'Discontinued' for Good. Should we Expect its Replacement to Overshadow the 50th Anniversary of the AP Royal Oak?

A little bit over three years ago, I wrote one of my first articles about the crazy prices in the secondary market for the Patek Philippe Nautilus ref. 5711/1A. At that time, I talked about a ‘Sealed from Service’ Nautilus 5711/1A being offered at $50K USD. Today, that is finally official —the third time is a charm after the release of the Olive Green and Tiffany Blue dial 5711s after it was supposedly discontinued— that the 5711/1A and 5711/1R are long gone, I decided to bring this topic back and in retrospective, the $50K USD back then seems like a steal when compared to what this watch is selling for nowadays.

Along with the Nautilus references 5711/1A and 5711/1R, Patek Philippe just discontinued a handful of other references that include some of our favorite watches from them such as the Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar ref. 5320G and the coveted salmon dial Perpetual Calendar Chronograph in platinum ref. 5270P.

Patek Philippe Nautilus ref. 5711/1R

In today’s world, any Patek Philippe Nautilus ref. 5711/1A with a gradient blue dial is now selling north of $180K USD, while its 18K rose gold counterpart reference 5711/1R is going anywhere north of $380K USD and as high as half a million dollars. Yes, they have finally reached an absolute unrealistic level. Is Patek Philippe preparing the territory to release the replacement of the 5711 later this year and overshadow the 50th anniversary of the AP Royal Oak? My guess is that they are. Especially if we take into consideration that the 5711/1A had already been ‘officially discontinued’ almost a year ago at the end of February 2021.

This year, Audemars Piguet will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Royal Oak and without the Royal Oak designed by Gérald Genta, there would be no Nautilus. We all know that Patek Philippe hired Genta to design a stainless steel sports watch that would overshadow the success that the Royal Oak was experiencing four years after its release in 1972.

While the first couple of years AP struggled to sell the Royal Oak, the watch exploded in the mid 70s after Gianni Agnelli ‘L’ Avvocato’ —owner of FIAT Group and Italian soccer team Juventus— was seen wearing one. The rest is history and the Nautilus reference 3700 was born in 1976 to go head-to-head against the Royal Oak ‘Jumbo’ ref. 5402ST. Even the word ‘Jumbo’ was used on the Nautilus mirroring exactly what AP was doing back then. Then comes the font on the calendar of the Patek Philippe Nautilus ‘Jumbo’ ref. 3700 that was almost identical to the one on the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak ‘Jumbo’ ref. 5402ST. This is not a mere coincidence and you all know it.

Images below from TheKeystone.com and ACollectedMan.com respectively.

With Watches & Wonders Geneva 2022 right around the corner —March 30 to April 6, 2022— it is very likely that Patek Philippe will present the replacement of the 5711 then and cast a big shadow over the 50th anniversary Royal Oaks to be presented sometime this year.

Now, if the 50th anniversary Royal Oaks get released right on or before Watches & Wonders, I am confident that there is nothing that Patek will be able to do to ‘dwarf’ AP’s releases. However, if the anniversary Royal Oaks get presented after the sale of Gerald Genta’s own Royal Oak at the Important Watches, Sotheby’s Biannual Auction in Geneva in May 2022, then that will be a different story.

Only time will tell at this point. What do you guys think?

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Posted on January 18, 2022 by Editor & Publisher and filed under From the Editor, Patek Philippe and tagged From the Editor Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1A Patek Philippe Time Date Watches Nautilus Nautilus 5711 Nautilus ref. 5711 Nautilus ref. 5711/1A Patek Philippe Nautilus ref. 5711/1A Most Popular 2022.