The Successor to One of many Most Coveted Watches on the Planet Is Right here

One of many greatest tales within the watch world final 12 months was concerning the finish of one thing: Patek Philippe introduced in January it deliberate to discontinue the beloved 5711 Nautilus. It wouldn’t be exaggerating to name the 5711 maybe the most important watch on the planet: It was so sought-after that its prolonged eight-year waitlist grew to become the stuff of legend. Collectors cherished that it got here with out fancy issues or a busied dial—simply a stainless-steel watch with a navy blue face and a small date window. The watch’s recognition was additionally its downfall. Patek’s president Thierry Stern gave it the ax as a result of he anxious the mannequin was absorbing an excessive amount of consideration. However on Tuesday, Patek introduced a brand new watch meant to exchange the 5711. Meet the 5811.

Technically, that’s the 5811/1G, the G signifying that the watch is made out of white gold. Patek made a number of modifications to the 5711, however the swap in materials is by far the most important. That’s no small tweak: A lot of the 5711’s success was due to the truth that it was made out of chrome steel. The watch was Patek’s model of a sport watch, its model of different outrageously widespread watches like Rolex’s Daytona and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak. An early commercial for the Nautilus bragged about utilizing the fabric, too: “One of many world’s costliest watches is product of metal.”

However, as evidenced by the watch’s efficiency on the secondary market, the place the 5711 sells for a lot of multiples of its $33,710 value, Patek was leaving cash on the desk. (Solely within the luxurious watch world can $33k really feel like a steal!) By switching to white gold, Patek is ready to promote the look ahead to $69,785, nearer to its true market worth. “This Nautilus is white gold as a result of I needed to elevate the typical value a bit of bit,” Stern informed Robb Report. “My goal at Patek Philippe is to remain impartial and to try this, I have to be worthwhile in order that I can reinvest in Patek Philippe with a brand new constructing, with new machines and with folks. Making solely metal watches, like lots of people have been asking for with the Nautilus and different traces, is harmful as a result of the worth common shall be too low, and this might put my entire enterprise in peril.”

So many Nautiluses have hit the open market, in actual fact, that Patek is now going to nice lengths to get the gross sales course of again on its phrases. Stern informed Robb Report that the model buys “a number of hundred” 5711s yearly from resale websites like Chrono24, after which do some detective work to find out which retailer it got here from. “So I’ll go and see the retailer and say, ‘Hey, by the best way, I discovered this watch on Chrono24. We delivered this watch two weeks in the past to you. So inform me now who was the consumer to whom you offered this piece?’ After which we could have a dialogue,” Stern mentioned. On this topic, he informed the New York Instances there are generally “sanctions” for offending retailers.

Properly, Stern might want to keep on the defensive. The brand new 5811 in white gold shares lots in frequent with the smash-hit 5711; there shall be nearly definitely be an extended record of individuals desperate to get their palms on this piece from wherever they’ll. “There is not going to be sufficient items for everyone,” Stern informed the Instances.