Recently in its forties, the replica Patek Philippe Nautilus is an essential icon as well as the flagship of one of the most emblematic brands in fine watchmaking. Introduced in 1976, the Nautilus was among the first luxury sports watches.
A sporty design by Gerald Genta
This concept, introduced by Gerald Genta in 1972 with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, broke the codes of fine watchmaking with a watch with an atypical design, but above all in steel, without metals or precious stones, going against the trend of luxury watches of the time. It is therefore in response to the arrival of Audemars Piguet in this new segment that Patek Philippe is launching the Nautilus. An interesting anecdote is that, according to Genta, the first sketch of the Nautilus was made in 5 minutes in a restaurant. Alongside executives from the brand, he created the sketch based on the portholes and their hinges present in the restaurant, in the style of those of a transatlantic liner. It would therefore be the hinges which gave this watch its very particular look.
The Jumbo, mother of the Nautilus
The first reference for the Nautilus was the 3700/1A, also nicknamed Jumbo. It actually had a diameter of 42mm which was, for the time, a giant size. It took its octagonal bezel from the Royal Oak, while displaying less abrupt curves and also adopted the bracelet integrated into the case, already present on the Royal Oak, which is today considered one of Gérald Genta’s trademarks .
But with the Nautilus also came its share of innovations: it is in fact waterproof to 120 meters, thanks to its very particular one-piece design. While the practice was to make a case with an openable back under the watch, Patek proposed a watch whose back and the rest of the case were linked; the movement was then introduced from the front, at the dial, and closed by a second block made up of the bezel, the crystal and its very special “ears”. The dial will bring from its first version what will remain as one of the emblematic elements of the Nautilus: a deep blue textured with horizontal lines which will allow extraordinary variations of color depending on the light.
The only complication present on the watch was then a date window which did not prevent the watch from presenting a very thin silhouette of 7.6mm. This would surely not have been possible with an in-house movement, which is why Patek turned to the thinnest movement available: the Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 920. This was then decorated and then equipped with an in-house pendulum: the Gyromax. After modification, the movement was called the 28-255C and was housed within the Nautilus.
From this reference a whole series of Nautilus was created, in two tones, in gold or even in platinum with diamond indexes. But above all it gave rise to multiple developments during the 80s and especially the 90s where it became a range in its own right.
The birth of a range
As early as 1980, Patek Philippe developed a women’s model of the Nautilus, operating with a quartz movement and presenting a reduced size of 27mm: the Nautilus 4700. But the first real evolution of the Nautilus arrived on the market in 1981 with the reference 3800. Design-wise, the only notable difference was the size of the watch, going from 42mm to 37.5mm. On the movement side, this watch introduced a major change: it was equipped with a central seconds hand. And for a simple reason: Patek Philippe wanted to abandon Jaeger-Lecoultre movements and offer a Nautilus equipped with a new in-house movement, the 335 SC. In the same year, Patek will offer the reference 3900, 33mm, expanding its range to 4 different diameters.
Patek Philippe will offer all these replica watches in different colors: in two tones with steel or all in gold, with blue dials but also black, white then gold before stopping production of the Jumbo model (42mm) in 1990. It will decline the others models until 1996 when it introduced two new models breaking the codes installed by the Nautilus: the 3800 with Roman numerals which became the Aquanaut.