Patek Philippe
Launched in 1976, Philippe Stern’ s Nautilus 3700 / 1 joined the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in confirming a new echelon of sport elegance timepieces in steel. Like its 1970’ s competitive contemporary, the Nautilus design looks as perfect and current today as it did 40 years ago.
Nautilus
Turns
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Philippe Stern’ s 1977 Design Stands The Test Of Time
It’ s the mid 1970s and the upstart and ultra-accurate quartz watch had already taken over the market. But, it was just starting to lose its initial cachet as prices began to plummet. Mass produced in the millions, quartz watches put Japanese manufacturers in an all-out race to the bottom to see who could make the greatest number of the least expensive watches. As this massive wave of goods engulfed the market, most Swiss brands stood reeling at the staggering losses in sales and market share.
Few Swiss luxury brands were able to ride the wave and survive intact, but it is during this very tumultuous period that Patek Philippe searched for a way forward without abandoning its own roots. As a standard-bearer for fine Swiss watches the company had a history that it felt should be honored. It was clear the brand also had to evolve. Putting this task to CEO-in-waiting Philippe Stern, Patek Philippe’ s challenge was for Stern to envision a watch that would reflect the current generation’ s evolving sense of style through the rose prism of a luxury brand. By no means an easy proposition in an environment saturated with‘ affordable’ quartz options, Patek Philippe nonetheless added a new dimension to what luxury might look like.
Like Audemars Piguet with the famous Genta-designed Royal
Oak, Philippe Stern had to put aside the dogma of the day that a luxury watch must be crafted in 18-karat gold and made as thin and elegant as possible.
Being a sportsman and a regatta sailor, he used his own lifestyle as inspiration to design a timepiece imbued with a casual elegance: the Patek Philippe Nautilus. Launched in 1976 with the slogan:“ One of the world’ s most expensive watches is made of steel,” its water resistance was proofed to 120 meters – which was also an unusual achievement at the time. The Nautilus’ porthole design and unusually robust construction placed the watch in the nascent design school that combined luxury and sport in a look that could be worn as easily with jeans or a suit.
The success of what was originally considered to be a journeyman’ s’ project quickly became a masterpiece and paved the way for Stern to take the helm as CEO of Patek Philippe only a year later. Since its inception the Nautilus collection has diversified; the first ladies’ edition came out in 1980, and as the return of the mechanical watch industry gained traction the Nautilus case has incorporated a variety complications to the platform. Handsome in all steel, the Nautilus can take on a more luxuriant look and adapts well to both two-tone and solid gold.
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Wristwatch | 2016