Patek Philippe Ref. 5711 Nautilus: Another Farewell?

It left, promising never to return, but now...

Fans of watchmaking will recall a surprising rumor which started going round online at the beginning of last year: Patek Philippe was going to discontinue the Ref. 5711 Nautilus. The company itself was initially very guarded when it came to commenting on the speculation.

The manufacture doesn't announce the discontinuation of any of its models, and wasn't even prepared to make an exception for its iconic Nautilus. Patek Philippe caved in April however, and came out with an official announcement.

President of Patek Philippe & Co. Thierry Stern confirmed that production of the Nautilus 5711/1A in steel would be halted that year. They even displayed the final version of the outgoing legend at Watches and Wonders: the 5711/1A-014 with an olive-green dial.

In an interview with the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Stern explained that the decision to cease production was due to the unwanted dominance of Nautilus in the collection and any one model shouldn't be the symbol of Patek Philippe's image above all else. Another reason was to make room for new models.

Patek's controversial decision sparked a heated debate which slowly died down. Just when the market had come to terms with to the loss, the collection's star model came back to shine again! At the beginning of December, Patek Philippe announced it would be partnering with Tiffany & Co. to create 170 Nautilus Ref. 5711 watches.

That's how the watchmaker has decided to mark the 170 anniversary of its partnership with the American luxury jewelry retailer. In 1851, none other than Tiffany became Patek Philippe's first official retailer in the United States.

It is difficult to estimate how many watch fans believed him this time. The Nautilus Ref. 5711 / 1A-018 will be offered to Tiffany & Co. in boutiques in New York, Beverly Hills and San Francisco. 170 VIPs will be able to purchase this watch for $ 52,000.

However, the price paid for the first model of the series by an anonymous collector from New York at the Phillips auction on December 11 was staggeringly high, even for market connoisseurs. Bidding started at $ 20,000.

Then the price of Patek Philippe Tiffany & Co. 5711 / 1A-018 Nautilus has grown into official retail and has continued to grow exponentially in increments of $ 100,000 for each subsequent bet. As a result, the blow of the hammer heralded the end of trading at $ 5.35 million.

After including the auction fee, the final price of the watch was US $ ~ 6.5 million. It is important to note that all proceeds from this valuable specimen will be redirected by the organizers of the auction to The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation organization operating in 72 countries.