Regarding the soaring of Patek's stainless steel sport models (mainly Nautilus and Aquanaut) in the last few yearsHODINKEE articles​ ​

Nautilus and Aquanaut are originally entry model roles in Patek's line-up, and after purchasing these models, they are in a position to lead customers to the top gold and platinum models. Soaring (for example, Ref.5711 / 1A with a list price of $ 30,000 is sold for $ 80,000 in the secondary market).

Ref.5711 / 1A The most basic steel nautilus.

 

In this situation, of course, official dealers and customers in each country complained that `` the allocation of Nautilus and Aquanauts is too small for demand '', but according to Patek CEO Thierry Stern, There seems to be no willingness to increase the production of Nautilus and Aquanaut. Thierry believes that Steel models should be within 25-30% of Patek's total production (62,000 per year). This is a number including Twenty4 for women, so if you have only Nautilus and Aqua Note, the number is set to be quite small.

Patek wants to protect the image that the main is a brand that makes luxury watches made of gold or platinum. “If you decide to make 40,000 Nautilus tomorrow, everything will be over,” he said.

Ref.5740 WG model with perpetual calendar

 

In addition, the policy is to reduce the number of authorized dealers to about 1/3. In fact, in the US, it was reduced from 160 to 100. Nevertheless, Nautilus is only required to enter several stores a year, and it has already been said that eight years have passed. Daytona is probably a similar situation.

However, this is a very difficult problem, and not only Patek but all brands are "similar to the basic steel sport models (Daytona and GMT in ROLEX)". The reason is obvious, and it will be related to the casual fashion. It is true that all brands are narrowing the number of supplies in the dilemma that "if you increase the production of those popular models, it will make money instantaneously, but the price will fall and the brand image will be damaged" .

Ref.5164A Steel Aqua Note is the same situation.

 

Since any product cannot be denied because it is so popular that it will become popular, only some sports models will continue to soar. To be precise, this has a slightly different mechanism from the soaring vintage watches, but as a result it may not make a big difference from the collector's side. After all, collectors are “even if they are expensive, they have to buy if they want”.