The Tiffany Blue Nautilus

The Tiffany Blue Nautilus

To honor the 170th anniversary of Patek Phillipe's partnership with Tiffany & Company, the two super brands co-released the coveted Stainless Steel Nautilus.

The Stainless Steel Nautilus, Ref. 5711 was recently discontinued after being out for about fifteen years, despite having a waitlist of almost ten years at one point.

Below is an early model of the Nautilus, which Patek Philippe originally launched in 1976. 

Traditionally, the Stainless Steel Nautilus comes with the dark blue dial. Specially for Tiffany's, Patek Phillipe remade the watch with a dial in Tiffany's famous light blue hue. 

Right now the Tiffany website reads:

"Celebrating 170 Years of Patek Philippe and Tiffany & Co. 

To commemorate this long-lasting partnership, Patek Philippe has created a limited-edition series of Ref. 5711/1A-018 Nautilus wristwatches in steel endowed with dials in the famous Tiffany Blue®. A limited quantity of 170 units will be available exclusively at Tiffany & Co."

Given the extremely limited quantities the watch is made in, one can predict it will only be obtained by longtime Patek wristwatch collectors and the Tiffany clients with the best relationship with the brand. 

One of these limited models was up for auction at Phillips New York in December 2021. The piece was a last-minute addition, but, after bidding starting at $20,000, it sold--to an online bidder some suspect to be Jay-Z--for $5.3 million, which came out to $6.5 after the auction premium.

While we're sure many went home disappointed that day, one can be glad because all $6.5 million went to charity.