>> GEORGE: What's up, guys.
My name is George.
And today I'm with CRM Jewelers and we're going to be talking about one of the most
iconic watches in the game, and that is Patek Philippe.
Now, to most collectors, this watch is considered, or this brand, I should say, is considered
to be the best in the watch market.
But is it really the best?
>> GEORGE: So before we go into some alternatives that many consider to be better than the Patek
Philippe, today we're going to focus on one specific model and that is the stainless steel
5711 Nautilus.
Okay, to figure out why Patek Philippe, the Nautilus specifically, is so collectible,
we have to kind of go back in time in the watch market.
So if you flash back to the 1970s, the watch market was kind of in a crisis, specifically,
the Quartz Crisis.
So back then, watches were meant to be tools and they were built to be accurate.
But then Quartz comes along and says, "Well, hey, guess what?
Your watch is maybe to be plus three, minus three a day in accuracy.
We're like that in a month."
So basically, a bunch of brands has got absolutely decimated, they were crushed.
So brands had to reinvent themselves to stay relevant especially in the luxury segment
because luxury watches are more expensive than your common quartz piece.
>> GEORGE: So the first brand to do this was Audemars Piguet.
What they did was, was they hired, who many considered to be the Picasso of watch design
and that is Gerald Genta and he made them the iconic Royal Oak, which to this day is
still AP's best watch in most collector's minds.
So they go ahead and they make that watch and then fast forward a couple years, Gerald
Genta isn't working for AP anymore.
He's at a restaurant.
He's sitting on a table and he's kind of just playing around with his sketchbook and he
sees two Patek Philippe executives walk in.
In his words and this is the funniest part about this is he draws the Patek Philippe
Nautilus in like five minutes and he walks up to these executives across the bar, the
restaurant, whatever and he shows them the design and they absolutely fell in love and
that's what started the sports luxury, stainless steel market, pretty much were those two watches.
>> GEORGE: Now if you know Jean-Claude Biver, he's a very iconic person in the watch market.
They thought, at the time he was working for AP and he thought it was kind of funny because
AP kind of was the originator of this design and then Patek followed them.
Now if you know people in the watch hobby, that's kind of weird.
Usually Patek is supposed to be number one and then AP follows suit but yeah, Jean-Claude
Biver who worked at AP at the time mentions this in his clip so Danny will play it right
now and you guys can check it out.
>> BIVER: They didn't see it as friends in 1976.
I was at AP and I don't think people find it as a friend.
And I think many people find it a little bit strange of Patek to suddenly follow AP.
>> HODINKEE: And that's why you bought that watch.
>> BIVER: Yeah and that's why I bought the watch.
>> GEORGE: Continuing on with the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711.
The history, when it first started, when it first came out it was not actually that well
received.
Like I said, a lot of people thought it was a copy of the AP Royal Oak and it was very
strange to most collectors because they kind of followed AP but Patek kept investing in
it and AP also kept investing in the Royal Oak.
They were basically the kind of two competition.
Think of it as BMW versus Mercedes for example.
They kept investing in it and the first one that really took off, believe it or not, was
the woman's model so they made a woman's model of the Patek Nautilus and it did very well
and that helped to push the men's model more into the mainstream and start selling.
>> GEORGE: Now, the funny thing about this piece, this watch, is that it was literally
designed in five minutes.
Gerald Genta literally sketched the design.
He made it after a porthole design of a boat or a ship and he just added some ears to the
side and yeah, there you have the Nautilus right there.
That right there can show you how good this guy was at design.
He made this super collectible watch that would stand the test of time for many more
years to come in about five minutes, which is very, very impressive.
>> GEORGE: Fast forward to a couple years, we're in the mid 2000s.
Nautilus is still doing well.
It has a retail of around 25 to 30 thousand depending of course what size and all that
and then if you go into 2013, 2014 demand starts to go up for the stainless steel piece
a little bit and then fast forward to 2017.
Prices really start to boom.
To my opinion, that's due to pop culture.
You had a bunch of rappers buying Pateks, rapping about Pateks.
There was a whole song I believe called something Patek, just about Patek Philippe as a brand
and it became more mainstream.
The culture switched from just Rolex to people rapping about Pateks.
Cardi B literally says, "patty cake on my wrist", so that in my opinion, put the brand
on the map for most non watch enthusiasts.
Before not that many people knew Patek Philippe or even if they were a luxury brand or not.
They just didn't know what the brand was and then the Nautilus was the one.
That stainless steel piece was the one to really ingrain that image in the average person's
mind of what a Patek Philippe looks like.
>> GEORGE: Just to name a couple celebrities that have made the Nautilus famous.
The first one is Drake.
He has his green one with baguettes custom made.
Drake man, you got to call me.
That thing is hideous, bro.
I got you.
I'll recommend you some good watches.
We have DJ Khaled with an iced out one.
Conor McGregor has two-tone.
So there's a bunch of different celebrities that have this watch and because they've been
promoting it the brand has really blown up in the mainstream and that in turn has affected
the prices.
>> GEORGE: The Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 in retail used to be around 30 grand.
Now in the gray market you'd be hard pressed to find one for maybe 70 depending on box
and papers condition.
The prices have gone absolutely bananas.
The watch is super expensive and this is where, me as a watch collector and enthusiast, I
look at other brands and say, is this watch really worth that price?
>> GEORGE: Let's pretend that you're in the market for a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711.
They go for around like I said, 70 grand with box papers.
In my opinion, what I would do is I would look at some other alternative brands and
build a collection with that 70 grand instead of just buying one watch.
Here are some of the luxury models and brands that I would go for personally instead of
the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711.
>> GEORGE: First luxury watch brand that I would pick to build your collection out of
with that 70 grand is the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph.
Now this watch to me, it's one of my personally my favorite watches ever.
It comes with actually three bands so if you buy the stainless steel you get a leather
and a rubber and it has a quick release system so you can swap them out really quickly.
It has a modern movement.
The watch is really well built.
It feels like jewelry on your wrist.
The bracelet, it's incredible.
The fit and finish so when you compare that to the Patek, I mean the Patek Philippe definitely
has the pedigree but that watch, to this day even in 2020, still feels like it was built
in the '70s.
It has a rattly bracelet, it has a friction clasp, it has a pin bracelet so it's actually
not screwed in.
When you compare it to the Vacheron which can get around, I would say 24 thousand for
Chronograph, even cheaper for the three-hander, maybe 19 thousand.
You can get that brand new.
It's part of the big three, the holy trinity, so you still have that pedigree there in your
collection.
>> GEORGE: The second luxury watch brand that I would choose would be Audemars Piguet.
Specifically the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak.
Now for this price point or our budget, I should say, I would go with the three-hand
model and this is where the argument comes in.
AP made this market.
They created the sports luxury market in stainless steel so to many collectors it's like you
could get the Nautilus, the 5711, but the AP is kind of the watch that started that.
It was the trendsetter and you can have them at a decent price.
You're not paying over sticker.
If you go into Patek and you want to get a Nautilus 5711 they're either going to laugh
at you or they're just going to be like, "Who are you?
What kind of client are you?
How much money have you spent with us?"
So it's very tough to get, where the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, you can walk into any dealer,
maybe you wait like two or three weeks but they'll get you the watch you want.
In that sense you can actually get it and again, it's part of the holy trinity.
It has that pedigree.
It has that history and yeah, at the end of the day it's the one that created that market
so you're getting the original stainless steel luxury sports watch.
>> GEORGE: An oddball brand, to most people at least, to collector's it's a fan favorite
is Glashutte Original.
They have this watch called the Panorama Seventies and they have a version of the Chronograph.
Now this watch has a TV screen style design.
Super '70s just like the name is.
Very similar to the Nautilus.
It takes similar design cues and that's an oddball brand.
It's German made.
It's not Swiss made whatsoever.
The price point I believe retail is close to that 20 thousand but in the grey market
they're around 12 thousand, I believe, for a good condition one.
This is a stainless steel luxury sports watch.
It's in house movement, beautiful, beautiful bracelet, beautiful dials, custom made in-house
for Glashutte.
No one else has access to their stuff and it's German so it's a little different.
It's for someone who wants to stand out from the crown and of course, the price point is
definitely a plus two.
>> GEORGE: Just to put into perspective how expensive the Nautilus 5711 has become, think
about it this way.
You could have technically seven Rolex Submariners in ceramic for one Nautilus.
Or I mean, I'm not in no way, shape or form am I comparing the Rolex Submariner to a Nautilus
in terms of pedigree and brand equity but here's the thing.
You could technically have the AP, the Vacheron in three-hand configuration or option and
you could have a Submariner for the price of one Nautilus.
So you could have basically some of the biggest brands in the world.
You have two in the holy trinity right there and then you have Rolex.
Rolex arguably is up there.
It's not as good as Patek or AP, don't get me wrong but yeah, you could still have maybe
a Hulk or a Batman or even just a plain old Jane Submariner so it's something to consider.
>> GEORGE: Say you have the 70 grand but you actually don't want to build a collection.
You want to buy one very desirable watch.
Well, I would go with the A. Lange and Sohne and that is the Datograph.
I know you guys last time beat me up on the pronunciation of it.
I'm working on it.
It's a German brand.
It's a little tough for an American.
We call it here, A. Lange.
There's a bunch of different pronunciations for it but we're working on it.
Yeah, the model I would go with specifically is the Datograph.
That is one of the best Chronographs in the world.
It's in precious metal.
The retail is 100 thousand but you can get them around that 60 to 70 mark.
It has this really cool complication called the up down complication.
What it is basically, if you know about watches you know about the power-reserve indicator,
which usually on the dial looks like a car gas gauge.
>> GEORGE: What the brand has done is that they've put basically this up down indicator
and when it's up that means the watch is fully wound and has power in the movement.
When it's down that means it's close to being out of power-reserve or it's actually fully,
it's just done.
It stopped working, stopped running so they've done it in a very unique way and I've never
actually seen another brand do that.
Again, man, it's a German brand.
You're standing out.
It's different.
If you walk in with that watch people know you're really a watch connoisseur where the
Patek, you could just be a fan of pop culture and you just want to blend in with the crowd
or be mainstream.
That's something that the A Lange & Sohne definitely has in it's favor.
>> GEORGE: Today we talked about Patek Philippe.
Specifically the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711.
We talked about alternatives in the market that I'd personally build a collection out
of and one watch I would buy instead of the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711, but at the end
of the day, the most important thing in this whole argument I would say is the price.
Now because there's so much demand for this watch at the end of the day this watch will
hold it's value and be a good investment in the long term.
Where these other brands, like the Datograph, for example, it will not hold it's value meaning
we saw it retail it was 100 grand, now it's 70 grand.
That's really one of the biggest factors in the market is you have to consider that your
investment is safe with Patek Philippe.
>> GEORGE: So guys, let me know at the end of the day what you would go for.
If you had 70 grand in the bank, would you go for the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 in
stainless steel or would you go for the alternatives that I mentioned today?
Now, personally I would think I would've gone with the alternatives and built a collection
but let me know what you guys think in the comments below.
Like, comment, subscribe.
This has been George from Avant Garde and see you guys in the next video.