--- title: "Patek Philippe Nautilus: How a Porthole Became a Grail" url: https://quietmenace.com/watches/patek-philippe-nautilus-history/ author: Quiet Menace Editors section: Watches published: 2026-09-24 updated: 2026-09-24 topics: Watch History, Industrial Design, Luxury Fashion --- # Patek Philippe Nautilus: How a Porthole Became a Grail > Gerald Genta drew it in 1974, Patek launched it in steel in 1976, and in 2021 the company killed its most wanted watch on purpose. In early 2021, Patek Philippe president Thierry Stern confirmed that the company would stop making the steel Nautilus 5711/1A, the most wanted watch it had ever produced. Secondary market prices had climbed to several times retail. Patek's answer was to end it. The decision only makes sense once you know where the watch came from, which is a porthole, a Jules Verne submarine and a designer who had already done this once. ## Genta's second act By the mid-1970s Gerald Genta had already designed the Audemars Piguet [Royal Oak](https://quietmenace.com/watches/audemars-piguet-royal-oak-history/), the steel sports watch that cost more than gold. Patek Philippe wanted its own. Genta drew the Nautilus in 1974, and it launched in 1976 as reference 3700/1A. The idea came from a ship's porthole. The case has a rounded octagonal bezel that sits between two flanges on either side, the ears that collectors spot from across a room, which echo the hinges of a porthole hatch. The name came from Captain Nemo's submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The dial was a deep blue with horizontal embossed grooves, and the bracelet was integrated so that the steel ran unbroken from the case into the links. At 42mm it was enormous for the time, and like the Royal Oak it picked up the nickname Jumbo. It was also priced like a Patek, which in steel was the whole provocation. Genta had already shown with the Royal Oak that the market would pay gold money for a steel case if the design carried it. The Nautilus was the second test of that theory, at the most conservative house in Geneva. ![A wristwatch resting on top of a metal link bracelet](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1703505841379-2f863b201212?w=1600&h=1067&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) *The integrated steel bracelet is half of the Nautilus formula. Photo by Jayanth Muppaneni on Unsplash* ## The quiet decades The Nautilus spent the 1980s and 1990s growing sideways. Patek added a quartz ladies' model in 1980, followed by a 37mm mid-size for men. In 1996 came a version with Roman numerals and a smooth dial without the grooves, and gold versions soon after. The 1998 reference 3710 added a power reserve indicator in the original 42mm size, and the 2005 reference 3712 brought a moonphase and a small pointer date. None of these changed the core design. That is the Patek way, slow and almost stubborn. Where the Royal Oak went loud in the 1990s with the Offshore, the Nautilus mostly stayed in its lane, a steel watch for people who already owned the gold ones. ## 2006 and the 5711 For the 30th anniversary in 2006, Patek redesigned the collection with a rounder three-piece case and introduced the reference 5711. It kept the blue horizontal dial, now in black-blue, added a central seconds hand and ran the in-house automatic calibre 315 S C. Then demand outran everything. By the late 2010s the 5711 had become the watch that stood for the entire luxury steel sports watch boom, a status object recognized by people who could not name a single complication. In 2016 Patek marked the 40th anniversary with a platinum 5711 limited to 700 pieces and a 44mm white gold chronograph limited to 1,300. In 2018 it added the reference 5740, the first perpetual calendar in the Nautilus line, in an 8.42mm white gold case. ## Why Patek killed its best seller The discontinuation of the steel blue-dial 5711/1A-010 in 2021 was one of the rare moments a luxury brand said no to money. Stern's reasoning, as he explained it at the time, was that Patek did not want to be known for a single model. A house that makes minute repeaters and grand complications could not let one steel time-and-date watch sit on top of its pyramid. The send-off was handled carefully. The last regular production version was the 5711/1A-014 with a sunburst olive green dial. In December 2021 Patek released a 5711 with a robin's egg blue dial signed Tiffany and Co., limited to 170 pieces. Afterward the white gold 5811/1G took over the core role in the collection, a deliberate step away from steel. ## Where the Nautilus sits now What the Nautilus proved is that Genta's formula from the Royal Oak was not a one-off. Steel, an integrated bracelet, a distinctive bezel and a price that refuses to apologize became a category every serious brand now competes in. It shares that line of descent with the [Rolex Submariner](https://quietmenace.com/watches/rolex-submariner-history/), a tool watch that crossed into status, and it sits at the opposite end of the room from the cheerful plastic of the [Swatch](https://quietmenace.com/watches/swatch-quartz-crisis-history/). For the opposite approach to luxury, quiet and rectangular and nearly logo-free, read our [Cartier Tank history](https://quietmenace.com/watches/cartier-tank-history/). There is more in [watch history](https://quietmenace.com/topics/watch-history/), [industrial design](https://quietmenace.com/topics/industrial-design/) and the [Quiet Menace watches section](https://quietmenace.com/watches/). DMARGE has a good account of [Patek's decision to discontinue the 5711](https://www.dmarge.com/watches/patek-philippe-discontinued-nautilus), and First Classe lays out the [5711 timeline reference by reference](https://firstclasse.com.my/pieces/discontinued-patek-philippe-nautilus-5711-a-history/). The detail that says the most about the watch is the one nobody notices at first. The bezel ears were drawn from a porthole hinge, a bit of nautical hardware that Patek has never removed in fifty years. --- Filed under: [Watch History](https://quietmenace.com/topics/watch-history/), [Industrial Design](https://quietmenace.com/topics/industrial-design/), [Luxury Fashion](https://quietmenace.com/topics/luxury-fashion/) Hero image: Photo by Puneet Kaul on Unsplash (Unsplash License)