Patek Philippe Aquanaut: Philosophy, Price and Opinions on Una Star

In 1997 the Patek Philippe Aquanaut debuts a timepiece inspired by his majesty Nautilus who tries to make it clear that he also has a lot of personality.

The rounded octagon-shaped case that like its replica watches predecessor resembled a porthole winked at a young clientele who, while wanting a piece of Haute Horlogerie, wanted a sporty and modern look on the wrist.

Index

Aquanaut: philosophy
A difficult road in the beginning
The first Aquanaut
Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167
Patek Philippe Aquanaut Price
Opinions
Aquanaut: Philosophy
Waterproof up to 120 meters, thanks to its screw-down crown and the famous Tropical strap in hypoallergenic composite material it is able to protect itself from the sun’s rays as well as from salt water. An Aquanaut can follow you during the working week as accompanying you on a weekend in Portofino always making you look good never leaving your wrist.

This watch was born from a witty intuition of Patek Philippe who in the last years of the old millennium thought of a timepiece for the new category of rampant managers, largely arising from the then emerging market for new technologies.

A less austere and demanding approach to the luxury watch that winked at those who, in that period, thanks to the digital market, had made a heap of money in a hurry and wanted to spend it.

If we add that behind all this there was no brand like Rolex, which already controlled a lower price range with its models, the fact that Aquanaut bore the signature of Patek made a lot of noise.

A road that is not easy at the beginning
The but never fail. We are well aware of the impact created by the Nautilus drawn by Gérald Genta’s ingenious pen twenty years earlier, but if we remove the clientele I mentioned earlier, however, the second collection of steel watches by Patek Philippe does not get solid but without a solid cultural watch base. he left immediately in fourth.

The problem lay precisely in his older brother and perhaps the fact that at the beginning the Maison – see the advertisement above – advertised it as “Nautilus Aquanaut” and I read this as a sign of insecurity, more than spontaneous fearing that the new born not being up to it, he needed a push from the first.

Then the fact that the connoisseurs considered the Aquanaut to be a “Nautilus light” just as today those who own the high range of the melafonino consider the honest, but obviously poorer iPhone SE.

And always those purists the reasons had also found them and well argued.

The sacred rules written figuratively always by the brilliant Genta in the early 70s, first with the Royal Oak and then with the Nautilus, define luxury sports only as the models with a steel case strictly equipped with integrated bracelets of the same metal.

The first Aquanaut had neither the steel bracelet nor its strap was integrated, then it was smaller and with a much simpler design. Today, as if to remedy that initial lack, there is also an all steel version with integrated bracelet, but the real Aquanaut is in my opinion only the model with the preferably black replica watches uk Tropical strap.

Today for the prices that the Baby Nautilus has reached you would not believe my words, but the image of the older brother, so cumbersome at the beginning, in the years to come it was she who pushed the child.

The two steel collections embody the joy and pain of the Calatrava Cross brand and President Thierry Stern made no secret of it in this interview with Hodinkee last year.

The family that has owned the most well-known luxury watch brand in the world for almost a century would like there to be more interest in its other timepieces, not necessarily much more expensive than Aquanaut and Nautilus but which in her opinion best represent Patek DNA.

On the other hand, when the watches go viral, as if to make just another example, the Rolex Daytona, there are no rational reasons for such an overwhelming success but as the emotion and passion are all feelings to be sought in the complex human mental sphere.

The first Aquanaut
The first model presented in 1997 is the Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5060A. With 35.6 mm, the dimensions were those of an average timepiece, although it must be considered that even in the past, the Maison had XXL watches in terms of millimeters, historically it has always traveled far below the average.

The similarities with the Nautilus are evident a fact decided by the aroused notoriety that in the first reference 3800 / 1A measured 37.5 mm.

If we remove the lateral stylistic elements, which in the older brother are symmetrical, the rounded octagonal steel case of Aquanaut is almost a copy of the Nautilus, as is its satin finish. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, the screwed crown was able to guarantee the same waterproofness offered by the first.

The aesthetic novelties were all in the dial which in reference replica watches uk 5060A was only offered in black. Instead of the horizontal wooden motif, we have a new tapisserie-style guilloche decoration with rounded horizontal and straight vertical engravings. The spheres of hours and minutes were in white gold and covered with luminous substance as well as the lap of minutes at the edges.

But the unique feature of the Aquanaut was the Tropical strap. For Patek, it must have been a quantum leap, a bit like when Rolex introduced the Oysterflex bracelet in 2015. Developed for a long time its alloy made up of different materials made it resistant to aging caused by the lethal combination of UVA rays and salt water, as well as hypoallergenic and antibacterial. Its invoice recalls the dial. A folding clasp secured it on the wrist.

On the movement side, the first Patek Aquanaut was powered by the 330 S C caliber, a self-winding manufacture movement just 3.5 mm thick with the functions of a three hands plus a date, but unfortunately the full caseback did not allow you to admire the refined finishes. Regulated by the Gyromax balance wheel – patented by Patek Philippe – at 21,600 vibrations / hour, thanks to a 21k gold unidirectional oscillating weight engraved with the Calatrava cross, it guaranteed 48 hours of autonomy of charge.

Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167
It is the most faithful model of the collection and today the most sought fake rolex after: he preserves the most genuine codes of this successful sports line. A bit like the real Daytona which is only in steel, the 5167 is the real Aquanaut: steel with black Tropical rubber dial and strap.

Released in 2007 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary, the 5i67 line has replaced the 5060 offering interesting innovations and several revisited details.

Let’s start from the case: adapting to the Nautilus, and more generally to the needs of recent times, it has gone from 36.8 mm to 40 mm while maintaining the steel, the shape, and the characteristic satin finish, another key point of the collection. With 8.1 mm the thickness remains very low and now we also finally have a sapphire caseback which reveals the face of the precious movement. The waterproofness of 120 m remains unchanged.

It is now moved by the Patek Philippe 324 S C caliber, the same movement that animates the Nautilus 5711 / 1A. It is an automatic caliber that does not miss some of the Maison’s most important innovations: the aerodynamic four-spoke balance wheel Gyromax which incorporates the Spiromax spiral in Silinvar (silicon).