Aquanaut
TURNS TWENTY Nautilus’ s baby brother comes of age in white gold.
BY MICHAEL THOMPSON
TWO DECADES AFTER HELPING TO DEFINE THE LUXURY SPORT WATCH CATEGORY WITH ITS STEEL-CASED NAUTILUS, PATEK PHILIPPE IN 1997 GAVE BIRTH TO ITS BABY BROTHER, AQUANAUT. A LESS COMPLEX VERSION OF THE GENTLY ROUNDED GERALD GENTA- PENNED OCTAGONAL CASE THAT MADE NAUTILUS ONE OF THE FEW MUST-HAVE MECHANICAL WATCHES FOR THOSE WHO DEFIED THE QUARTZ AGE FORTY YEARS AGO, AQUANAUT’ S LINEAGE WAS CRYSTAL CLEAR UPON ITS DEBUT TWO DECADES AGO.
And that was the point. Patek Philippe’ s president at the time, Philippe Stern, sought to create a Nautilus that would appeal to a broader, younger audience. He approved a simpler three-part design with the same porthole-shaped bezel and nautical theme.
The Aquanaut design also drew on two decades of case-making technology that eliminated the need for the Nautilus left- and righthand hinges to assure water resistance. And without the complex Nautilus case and the costly steel bracelet, the so-called‘ Tropical’ composite-strapped Aquanaut was more affordable to a wider range of collectors.
Thus it should surprise no one that this year’ s celebratory twentieth anniversary Aquanaut again owes much to its big brother. When celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Nautilus last year, Patek Philippe chose to create two platinum-cased versions, one chronograph and one time / date model, each with a gradated midnight blue dial.
This year we’ re celebrating Aquanaut’ s first two decades with the
SUMMER 2017 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 61