Seven Times Patek Philippe Surprised the Watch Community, from Nautilus to Now

Patek Philippe is one of the most revered and honored watchmakers in the world, and it would be ludicrous to say that it gets a “bad rap” from any quarter of the watch community, from collectors and enthusiasts to competitors. However, as with any heritage brand at the pinnacle of its powers, there are bound to be suppositions and stereotypes that cling to it, fairly or not. One such stereotype that seems to persist about Patek, at least in the dozen-plus years I have been closely chronicling the brand, is that it is relatively conservative and risk-averse, at least in comparison with many of its high-horology peers, in a watch climate that often — though certainly not always — tends to reward boldness. Looking back at Patek Philippe’s recent (and even not-so-recent) history, however, it’s worth making the counterpoint — that Patek has not only taken risks but has often done so in a way that took its most faithful and fervent supporters entirely by surprise. 

Consider, for example, the life cycle of the watch that many aficionados these days associate most closely with the brand, the iconic Nautilus. It was entirely out of left field when it debuted in 1976, sporting a design that was much more avant-garde than anything Patek had historically offered, as well as an in-your-face marketing campaign that actually touted as a selling point its status as the most expensive sports watch ever made in steel. It was a risky gamble that eventually paid off, as the Nautilus would become one of the undisputed stars of the luxury watch boom that began near the turn of the millennium and continues today. However, perhaps even more surprising than the Nautilus’s defiant debut during the early years of the Quartz Crisis was the abrupt exit from the market of its core reference, the steel, three-handed Ref. 5711, in 2021. Patek Philippe president Thierry Stern has maintained that the model’s scorching-hot popularity was not only creating an unsustainable bubble (and agonizing multi-year wait lists) but also diverting too much attention from the rest of the brand’s overall collection and detracting from its traditional, luxurious identity. I’ll be exploring the Nautilus and its legacy in a future article, but for the here and now, let’s just agree that the retirement of the 5711 at the height of its popularity was far from a predictable move. Below, I highlight seven other instances, all since the Nautilus’s debut, in which Patek Philippe took the industry as a whole by surprise.

1996: The Annual Calendar Ref. 5035 Introduces a Brand-New Complication

Throughout its history, Patek Philippe had been responsible for several horological world-firsts, particularly in the arena of wristwatches, including the first perpetual calendar for the wrist. By the 1990s, Patek was offering an array of calendar-equipped complications that ranged from the relatively simple and affordable “triple calendar” — which displayed day, date, and month and required adjustment five times a year (after any month less than 31 days long) and the uber-complex and expensive perpetual, which didn’t require adjustment at all. What was missing, Patek realized, was a calendar timepiece somewhere in the middle, in terms of both complexity and cost — a “serviceable complication,” in the words of then-president Philippe Stern. The answer to the conundrum debuted in 1996: Ref. 5035, equipped with the groundbreaking Caliber 315 S QA, which was designed for automatic switching of all the 30-day and 31-day months, meaning the wearer need only make one manual adjustment per year, at the end of February (either 28 or 29 days). This was the first annual calendar wristwatch, and it would inspire many others, both from its inventor, Patek Philippe, and from other competing watchmakers that would ultimately put their own spin on the complication. Not only was no one expecting such an innovation from Patek Philippe — especially during an era when quartz was still dominant and mechanical watches were only very slowly making their way back to the mainstream — but few among the younger generation of watch enthusiasts today probably are even aware of how young the annual calendar wristwatch actually is.

1997: The Aquanaut Debuts as the “Little Brother” of the Nautilus

Just one year after essentially inventing the Annual Calendar category, Patek Philippe responded to another underserved niche that it perceived in the market — a more “accessible” version of the maison’s red-hot Nautilus sport-luxury model that would be aimed at a younger generation of consumers, made newly affluent by the era’s dot-com boom, who may have perceived the Nautilus, iconic or not, as their father’s luxury watch. The first Aquanaut (Ref. 5060A), which debuted in 1997, fit the bill, with a three-part case that was simpler and less elaborate than the Nautilus’s two-piece “porthole” construction, and mounted on a durable composite rubber strap — a sportier and less costly alternative to the integrated metal bracelet of the Nautilus. The Aquanaut’s slightly rounded octagonal bezel, with vertically satin-finished flat surfaces and chamfered, polished edges, was similar to that of its Gerald Genta-designed “big brother,” but not paired with the latter’s signature “ears” on each side of the case. The modest 35.6mm steel case, soon to be expanded in future versions, contained the automatic Caliber 330 SC. Replacing the parent model’s horizontal wave textured dial with baton hour markers was a dial with a distinctive, embossed checkerboard pattern (repeated on the strap) and bold, applied Arabic numerals that helped forge for the Aquanaut a distinct identity of its own. The Aquanaut remains a powerhouse in Patek’s collection today — even outliving some popular models of the parent Nautilus collection that inspired it, which certainly would have surprised many back when it was launched.

2008: The Establishment of the Patek Philippe Seal

For many years, Patek Philippe submitted its in-house movements to an independent bureau to receive the prestigious poinçon de Genève, or Geneva Hallmark, a symbol of quality based on 12 criteria and awarded only to watch movements made within the canton of Geneva. In 2009, however, much to the surprise of many industry observers, the company rolled out its own quality seal, which established even tighter criteria and extended them not just to the movement but to the entire watch. Superseding the benchmarks of both the Geneva Hallmark (which awards points for finishing and materials) and the COSC chronometer certificate (which awards them for accuracy and reliability), the Patek Philippe Seal set a new standard not only for chronometric performance but for haute horlogerie decoration. “It is indisputable,” the brand announced at the launch of its in-house criteria, “that a hallmark of quality must apply to the whole watch. This fact called for a new seal that defines all competencies and features of relevance to the manufacture, precision, and lifelong maintenance of a Patek Philippe timepiece. The rules apply to all of the manufacture’s movements regardless of their complexity... it encompasses cases, dials, hands, pushers, spring bars for straps, etc., as well as the aesthetic and functional aspects of finished watches. Moreover, given that a Patek Philippe watch is first and foremost an instrument that measures time, the Patek Philippe Seal makes a binding statement regarding rate accuracy.” In summary, Patek tests all its movements to stricter precision tolerances than does COSC, with small variations in tolerance based on size: calibers with diameters of 20 mm or more must achieve accuracy within -3 and +2 seconds per day. Calibers with diameters smaller than 20 mm must meet a daily standard of -5/+4 seconds. Rate tests are performed in several phases of the manufacturing process, with the final tests conducted on fully assembled watches. The Patek Philippe Seal has since become a standard feature of all the manufacture’s watches, and other watchmakers like Rolex and Omega have since established their own in-house quality marks, so it’s easy to forget what a landmark this was when it was announced. 

2009: The First In-House Chronograph Goes to “Ladies First”

While Patek Philippe can claim an elite level of in-house horological expertise and an impressive roster of manufacture movements, the one accolade missing from its repertoire for many years was a fully in-house-made integrated chronograph movement. Patek, like many of its contemporaries, had relied on an outsourced mechanism — the Lemania 2310, which is made by a manufacturer owned by the competing Swatch Group conglomerate (and now technically part of Breguet) — as its chronograph caliber of choice, That all changed in 2009, when Patek Philippe introduced Caliber CH 29-535 PS, its first fully in-house-made chronograph movement, equipped with a column wheel, a friction-resistant teeth design for the wheels, and a number of other innovations, several of them patented. Now, the fact that one of the leading high-horology houses in the world would start making such a movement, especially in an era of increasing vertical integration in the industry, wouldn’t have been much of a surprise, but what made the launch so notable was that the new caliber debuted not in a men’s watch, as per tradition, but in a particularly elegant women’s model, Ref. 7071, which Thierry Stern nicknamed “Ladies First,” with a figurative wink and nod. The Ladies First model, which was noteworthy for its cushion-shaped case, diamond-set bezel, and quirky, asymmetrically oriented subdials on its bicompax, opaline dial, was produced from 2009 through 2016, after which it was replaced in the lineup by the round-cased Ref. 7150 models. The manually wound Caliber CH 29-535 PS, in contrast, lives on in various Patek Philippe chronograph watches, for women and men, including the popular Ref. 5172 and Ref. 5270, and has even become a base for additional complications, such as spilt-seconds functions and perpetual calendar indications.

2014: The Grandmaster Chime celebrates Patek Philippe’s 175th Anniversary — with 20 Complications

In 2014, Patek Philippe marked 175 years since its founding in 1839 and it did so in grand style, releasing a plethora of new timepieces and hosting a historical exhibition of its milestones in New York City, where the brand’s U.S. headquarters is based. The centerpiece of the anniversary year was a timepiece that it’s likely no one was expecting: the original Grandmaster Chime, which featured no less than 20 complications, displayed on two reversible dials, and the most ornately engraved gold case that Patek Philippe has made in the modern era. The watch, one of only seven made, was the most complicated Patek Philippe wristwatch ever made (distinguishing it from the maker’s most complicated pocket watch, the legendary Graves Supercomplication of 1933) with its cornucopia of complications displayed on two dials, one for each side of the swiveling, reversible case with its elaborate hobnail guilloché-patterned sides. Two patented world-first horological innovations made their debut in the piece —  an acoustic alarm that chimed at a pre-programmed time and a date repeater that struck the date on demand — along with a Grande and Petite Sonnerie, moon-phases, and a perpetual calendar. Exactly how big of an undertaking was the creation of the Grandmaster Chime? According to Patek, the rundown by the numbers is: eight years in development; 100,000 hours of effort, 60,000 hours for the movement alone; 1,336 total parts in the movement, Caliber 300 GS AL 36-750 QIS FUS IRM (don’t ask what all the abbreviations mean); and all packed into a case measuring 47.4mm in diameter and 16.1mm thick for (at its release) a price of 2.5 million Swiss francs. The Grandmaster Chime has since entered Patek Philippe’s regular collection, but your definition of ‘regular” may vary: the model is most definitely not something you can pick up on a whim at your local boutique.

2015: The Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Takes Off

Perhaps inspired by the thorough revisit of its history in the previous year, Patek Philippe dusted off a decidedly tool-oriented timepiece from its distant past as the headliner of its 2015 collection. Certainly, no one was expecting a vintage-look aviator’s watch from the king of elegant luxury (I know; I was there in Baselworld when it was unveiled) but the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time was not only a tribute to the nearly forgotten watches that the maison made in the 1930s for pilots. It was also a stylish stage upon which to introduce another new complication — an ingenious, user-friendly version of the world-time functionality that Patek had pioneered since its partnership with famed watchmaker Louis Cottier in those selfsame ‘30s. The movement’s second-time-zone system, which was patented in 1959 and 1996, incorporates two pushers at 8 and 10 o’clock to move the local-time hour hand forward or backward, in one-hour increments, while the watch continues to run with the usual accuracy thanks to an isolator device that decouples the extra time display from the main timekeeping. On the outside, the watch was a definite departure from modern-day Patek: a navy-blue dial inspired by the paint jobs of 1930s American fighter planes and the big Arabic numerals are in a retro font evocative of the era. The strap was also one not usually found on a Patek, made of vintage brown calfskin leather with contrast top-stitching, reminiscent of the leather belts worn by early 20th-century pilots, and attaching to the wrist with a buckle that resembled a pilot’s gear harness. Controversial at first, the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time has become a mainstay of the collection, while the signature world-time complication of its movement, Caliber 324 S C FUS, is also firmly established within Patek Philippe’s portfolio, appearing not only in Calatrava Pilot watches but also models within the Nautilus and Aquanaut families, and sometimes even paired with other complications (like the annual calendar detailed above).

2024: A Nautilus Flyback Chronograph with a Denim Strap?

Certainly, finding new and unusual materials for straps is a common pursuit in the 21st Century watch industry, but something as “downmarket” as denim was not at all common on any watch considered “luxury,” except for very rare instances. The primary examples came from Hublot, a luxury brand that, let’s face it, no one could criticize as being shy or risk-averse; and Omega, on a very specific model of its discontinued Railmaster designed to evoke the uniforms of early railroad engineers. But in 2024, quite out of the (ahem) blue, Patek Philippe unveiled a new white-gold version of its Nautilus Flyback Chronograph (Ref. 5980/60G), mounted proudly on a denim-pattern calfskin leather strap that echoed the blue-gray shade of its dial. The watch measures 40.5mm in diameter and 12.2mm thick and carries within it the self-winding manufacture Caliber CH 28‑520 C/522. At the moment, this is the only version of the Nautilus Flyback Chronograph in the current portfolio, signaling not only Patek Philippe’s confidence in its “casual luxury” approach to the model but its willingness to continue surprising us in the future.