Throwback Sundays: Six alternative high end sporty watches to the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1a

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The wait list for the Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref 5711/1a is indeed maddening It is apparently almost impossible to buy one at retail from an Authorized Dealer.

And yet, we implore you NEVER to buy from grey/black market dealers at a premium So what is a guy (gal) gotta do? Here are six alternatives.

As mentioned in another article earlier, getting the coveted Nautilus 5711/1a retailing for S$40,400 (if that’s your thing) is not a life and death issue Not medicine for your sick gramps, or food on the table for the family.

If you cannot get the watch at retail, buy something else In this article, we discuss some suggestions.

The coveted Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref 5711/1a with a smoked blue dial

Here are our criteria:

must be a sporty watch, preferably in a steel or titanium case, with bracelet or water resistant strapa water resistance of at least 100m.

We allow variations over the basic three hand watch for a bit more variety, and fun And since this is a replacement grail to your lust for the 5711, it should be a watch currently available at retail price from an Authorized Dealer.

Although in no particular order, the list opens with two of the most obvious suspects Viz the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak which pre-dates the original Patek Nautilus by about 4 years and designed by the same Gerald Genta, and the Vacheron Constantin Overseas, whose predecessor – the Ref.

222 also hails from the same era, though designed by Jorg Hysek We hesitate to include the IWC Ingenieur, also by Genta and designed circa the same era, as the current Ingenieur is not the same beast And also the Ingenieur had already been in existance since the late 1950s, and Genta was responsible for the re-design in 1976, while he was responsible for creating a new genre of luxury sports watches with the Royal Oak

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Salmon

We begin the the grand daddy of them all.

Gerald Genta created the original Royal Oak in 1972, and with it, a new genre of wrist watches which goes against the grain of the prevailing environment of the day The early 70s were not groovy times for Swiss watchmaking, but the industry was in the last of its dying throes, as the quartz revolution seems bent on wanting to bulldoze over Audemars Piguet’s answer to the doom and gloom was to introduce an expensive, stainless steel sports watch.

All three adjectives are counter-intuitive Expensive Stainless Steel.

Sports Audacious Very AP, though Patek Philippe would pull off this very same stunt (expensive, stainless steel, sports) with their Nautilus just 4 years later.

With the same designer, no less

But the Royal Oak became the stuff of legends The Royal Oak not only provided AP with the bouyancy to keep afloat, but allowed AP to thrive.

AP was never hit by the quartz crisis, and the RO became the icon it is today Our pick is this year’s latest: the Jumbo in white gold []

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