Secrets of the Patek Philippe Nautilus

When the Patek Philippe Nautilus was launched 50 years ago, in 1976, it helped re-energise the world of high-end Swiss watchmaking, which was in the midst of the ‘quartz crisis’. As the industry reeled from the arrival of the battery-powered watch and its far-reaching consequences, Patek Philippe boldly released a new timepiece designed by Gérald Genta.

Although Genta’s creation is now considered an integral part of Patek Philippe’s identity, at the time it was a huge risk for the company to produce a watch so different from anything it had made before. An oversized and expensive steel mechanical automatic in a world where ultra-thin gold-bracelet quartz watches were all the rage with the disco generation, the Nautilus made a statement that was heard around the globe.

That statement continues to resonate today, as the Nautilus evolves in new and unexpected ways. But for all the twists and turns over the course of half a century, the Nautilus has stayed true to its DNA. Here, we share six remarkable facts about this iconic watch.

In an interview in 2009, Gérald Genta discussed the moment when he was inspired to design the watch now known as the Nautilus. It was the mid-1970s and he was sitting in a restaurant during the Basel watch fair. ‘Some people from Patek were sitting in one corner of the dining hall, while I was sitting alone in the other corner,’ he recalled. ‘I told the head waiter, “Bring me a piece of paper and a pencil, I want to design something.” And I designed the Nautilus while observing the people from Patek eating! It was a sketch that I completed in five minutes… It very quickly met with success. I made the prototype in my studio and its success was accelerated.’

The design was based on the shape of the porthole of a transatlantic liner, with a wide bezel and ‘ears’ on each side evoking the large hinges of those watertight windows.

When the Nautilus was first released in 1976, the original retail price for this time-only watch was $3,100. It was a bold price and a bold design for the time — by comparison, a Patek Philippe mechanical wristwatch in 18k gold retailed for just under $4,000, and a steel Rolex Daytona chronograph was priced just under $1,000.

The first Nautilus reference 3700 watch contained the calibre 28-255C, which was made with a movement sourced externally from Jaeger-LeCoultre — the calibre 920 — and finished in-house by Patek Philippe. In fact, this is the same movement that was used in early examples of one of Gérald Genta’s other masterpieces of design: the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. This movement was considered one of the best ultra-thin automatic calibres of the era.

From 1971 until 1995, all watches made in Switzerland with gold applied markers or gold dial plates were required to have the ‘APRIOR’ logo (often called ‘sigma’, after the Greek letter) marked on the dial. With Nautilus watches from this period, the APRIOR mark can be seen on each side of the ‘SWISS’ under the six o’clock baton. This was due to the fact that the hour-marker batons of the watches were made from white gold rather than steel. APRIOR stands for ‘Association pour la Promotion Industrielle de l’Or’. From today’s perspective, it’s rather ironic that this association is ‘promoted’ on the dial of such an iconic steel watch.

On the subject of steel, early Nautilus watches were made from nickel-chromium-molybdenum steel, an alloy that was considered the highest standard at the time. It was made to withstand extreme temperatures and pressure, and known for its resistance to corrosion. Used extensively in the construction of tanks during the Second World War, it was not only protective but relatively light compared to ‘regular’ steel.

In April 2026, Patek Philippe launched three new wristwatches to celebrate the Nautilus’s 50th anniversary, following similar releases to mark its 30th and 40th. One is produced in platinum and offered at 38 millimetres, while the other two are in white gold at 41 millimetres in width, with the option of a composite strap. At just 6.9 millimetres thick, they are the thinnest ever Nautilus models. To achieve this, they have been dramatically stripped back, with no second hand or date window. Only a small inscription on the calibre’s micro-rotor, visible through a clear case-back, indicates the occasion being marked.

The watches — designated the 5610/1P-001, 5810G-001 and 5810/1G-001 — are priced at around £60,000 to £90,000, and only 5,000 are being made in total. Thought to have sold out immediately, they are among the most coveted steel watches in modern production, and likely to become future classics. Their popularity, like that of all the watches in the current Nautilus line-up, shows that the model is still young at heart after five decades, continuing to command the attention of watch collectors worldwide.

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