What a beautiful watch! I think you'll find the reason for this popular line being discontinued to be very interesting.
Patek’s Nautilus Ref. 5711 Gets Grand Finale At Tiffany By Rob Bates | December 06, 2021
"Patek Philippe has created a limited edition of its soon-to-be-discontinued Ref. 5711/1A Nautilus steel wristwatch, which will be sold at select Tiffany & Co. stores.
The new model, dubbed Ref. 5711/1A-018, departs from the typical Nautilus black-blue design and will be adorned with Tiffany’s signature robin’s-egg blue. Production will be limited to 170 pieces—a hat tip to Patek and Tiffany’s 170-year relationship. (The two companies began working together in 1851. They were founded two years apart—Tiffany in 1837 and Patek in 1839.)
The price of the new edition will be $52,635, higher than the standard 5711. The watches will be dual stamped, with Tiffany’s logo at the six o’clock position and Patek’s at the 12 o’clock. Its sapphire crystal caseback bears the commemorative inscription: “170th Anniversary 1851–2021 Tiffany & Co. – Patek Philippe.”
In February, the Swiss watchmaker announced that it was stopping production of the steel Nautilus Ref. 5711/1A—which GQ called “the most coveted watch in the world.” The announcement sent prices of the watch, which premiered in 2006, soaring on the secondary market.
Given that retailer-brand collaborations tend to fetch high prices, and that this is the last edition of this much-sought-after model, it’s almost certain to be highly coveted.
“The hardest part will be to choose [the customers],” says Thierry Stern, Patek Philippe’s president. “It’s a good problem. But it’s going to be crazy.
“I wouldn’t do it for anybody else but for Tiffany,” Stern adds. “They deserve it, for the past, for our relationship. It’s a good way to say thank you for them—and not only for them but for the U.S. market.”
The watches will be carried at Tiffany stores in New York City, San Francisco, and Beverly Hills, Calif. Tiffany & Co. will also auction off a watch on Saturday at Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo, with all proceeds benefiting The Nature Conservancy.
Here's how the auction went for Patek's Nautilus Ref. 5711.
Patek-Tiffany Watch Sells for $6.5 Million at Auction By Rob Bates | December 13, 2021
"On Saturday, a limited-edition Patek Philippe Ref. 5711 Nautilus with a Tiffany Blue dial sold for $6.5 million at a watch auction run by Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo.
All proceeds from the sale, held in New York City, will go to the Nature Conservancy.
Phillips called the watch created by the Patek-Tiffany collaboration “historic” and “highly important,” which is striking since the watch premiered only last week. It is part of Patek’s final run of Nautilus Ref. 5711/1As, which the company announced it will stop producing in February. GQ has called the reference “the most coveted watch in the world.”
Just 170 of these Patek-Tiffany watches will be made, and, aside from this one sold at auction, they will all be sold exclusively at Tiffany & Co. boutiques in New York City, San Francisco, and Beverly Hills, Calif.
Patek chose to produce only 170 of them to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the relationship between Patek and Tiffany. (The two companies have worked together since 1851.)
This recent Phillips auction was a milestone in other ways. All told, it brought in $35.9 million, making it the highest-value watch auction in U.S. history.
Other highlights included a $667,800 hammer price for the Omega Speedmaster owned and worn by Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man. That price is more than 60 times its original estimate. The watch was acquired by the Omega Museum.
A George Daniels tourbillon pocket watch, the fourth timepiece ever produced by the independent watch master, achieved $1.7 million
The sale caps a banner year for Phillips watch sales. All told, the London-based auction house sold $209.4 million in watches in 2021—an 89% increase over the prior year. It also sold 100% of the watches up for sale, a first for any auction house in history, a statement said.
