Like most of the watch world, New York watch collector and long-time wrist accessory enthusiast Zach Lu (@zachattack__25) was bowled over by the Patek Philippe and Tiffany & Co. co-signed limited edition of the coveted steel sport watch Nautilus 5711 released in November 2021. After underbidding on the watch at the Phillips 2021 New York Watch Auction, Zach Lu watched his chance with the famed timepiece evaporate. But a fortuitous turn of fate would make Zach the jubilant owner of the auction example after all. In early 2022 the Tiffany Nautilus found its place on Zach Lu’s wrist.
Zach Lu recalls Thierry Stern’s, CEO of Patek’s, perplexing announcement in early 2021; Patek’s steel flagship Nautilus Ref. 5711 would enjoy one last triumphant lap before its final retirement. This was the first play in a series of increasingly shocking Nautilus related moves, which won Zach the watch that he ranks among his most significant acquisitions. It would be difficult to over-emphasize how enticing and desired the steel sport-watch, with its decade-long-waiting list, really is and predictably, its pre-retirement tasteful army-green dial version was almost impossible to obtain. It may have been the hottest watch release of 2021 before the Tiffany Nautilus came around.
The Tiffany & Co. version altered the typical muted elegance of the Nautilus with a vivid Tiffany Blue dial and striking indices of applied blackened gold. The bezel and integrated steel bracelet are set by a sequence of satin-finished and polished links, each applied by hand in a 55-step process. According to Zach, its artistry is painstaking and the watch deserves to be sold for as much as any “sapphire Richard Mille” that “goes for $5 or $6 million”. But as Zach acknowledges, the watch’s astonishing appearance is only one facet of its appeal. A sapphire-crystal case back comes inscribed with a “170th Anniversary Tiffany & Co – Patek Philippe 1851 – 2021” and a dial signed by both Tiffany & Co. and Patek Philippe. Watch collectors across the world are rabid for rare ‘co-signed’ dials–and Tiffany dials are some of the most renowned. To Zach Lu, with its added LVMH association–through LVMH’s ownership of Tiffany & Co–the watch represents a “trifecta of luxury in finer goods” and a “transcension” of the “boundaries of horoly”. For Zach, the watch has also become “a pop-culture landmark”, ratified by how quickly the likes of Dicaprio, Jay-Z and Lebron all jumped at the chance to wear this rare timepiece.
Zach Lu’s competitive spirit was kindled, when Patek added one lone example of the coveted sportwatch to the auction block, at the December 11th Phillips Auction House event—169 additional swan song Nautilus 5711 pieces were exclusively promised to Tiffany & Co. boutiques in New York, Beverly Hills and San Francisco that house Patek Philippe pieces. Owning the sportwatch, and the prestige it would garner, would be a tour de cou for any self-respecting watch collector, and Zach knew he would do all he could to possess the first of the last, the earliest available of Patek Phillip Nautilus’ crowning achievement, Ref. 5711/1A-018 with the Tiffany & Co. signed dial. He rushed into the auction house just before the Nautilus’s 14 minutes and 39 seconds under the hammer. Although he’d planned to limit his bid to dollars 3 or 4 million, the auction space was a frenzy of increasingly higher bids, and he shocked himself by shouting for $5.1 million. Zach, who’d made his voice heard, became slightly less vocal as bidding continued to creep along in $50,000 increments. He finally dropped out, and an anonymous online New York bidder–paddle number 9252–-swept the auction with $5,350,000. A
On December 11th, Zach Lu trudged on home without sporting vivid Tiffany blue on his arm. But our indomitable underbidder had made an impression on horology experts. 31-year-old Zach had been acquisitioning watches from Patek for sixteen years, ever since he first started collecting timepieces at age 15. He had a personal connection with Thierry Stern and had earlier reached out for an allocation. Stern had replied that unfortunately, the decision lay entirely with Tiffany. But Zach had also had a brief encounter with a key player who worked within High Management in Tiffany. When the original buyer had to abruptly bail on the Tiffany Nautilus, High Management remembered the young collector. Patek and Tiffany were impressed with Zach’s buying history and offered him the watch for what his final bid–and the commission–would have been, a total of $6.2 million. Patek gave Zach the weekend to pull a decision together. He was ready in an hour. Yes, he wanted the Tiffany Nautilus.
Zach Lu, also told us that for him the charity component absolutely matters. “It’s for a great cause,” he told us. The original auction had been promised to the Nature Conservancy, and Zach was informed that $6,503,000 would still benefit the foundation. The Tiffany Nautilus did its work, both for the cause, and for Zach Lu.
