Now, THIS is a Nautilus | Drop

It's Thursday, 11 o'clock. I'm back. I can't remember what I was supposed to say. Thank you so much to Mike and Matteo. I clearly need to up my game. But a tan's looking good. Mr Porter clothes are looking good. Link in the description. And the watches are on point. Let's jump into it. To shake the rust off, I know what I need. I need some big money bangers. Bangers? I'm not sure I'm going to say bangers. A big money Patek. And here's one that we've never actually had at Subdial before. A Nautilus reference 5811 slash 1G. That slash 1G is important because we've seen white gold Nautilus before, but this one is the updated version after they sort of cancelled it, but then didn't. And it's come back with white gold, bracelet, the same blue fume dial. But there's actually a few little things about this watch that make it really, really special. The 5711 was something that gained such popularity over such a quick amount of time. Actually wasn't very popular at all when it first came out. And then obviously pandemic hit, supplies were reduced and it took off like no one's business. And Patek really then thought, I know what we're going to do. We're just going to cancel it. And they did a couple of runouts with a Tiffany dial and with a green dial. And then they came back with this. And for its 50th anniversary year, this year, I'm expecting to see quite a lot of interesting new Nautilus designs coming out. Whether I'm right on that, I don't know. But what I do know is this watch needs your attention in this year, particularly. Why? It feels impressive. It looks impressive. The extra millimeter doesn't make any difference at all. It wears exactly the same. But the thinness of this watch is actually slightly smaller than the steel ones. And that's because they've gone back to this two-piece case construction. I think that's really important. That's where the Nautilus started. This sort of front-loaded case design. It's heavy, luxurious. What a watch. The next watch is, I suppose, how many of these have we seen in the last few weeks? The 222, whether it's the modern reference or the vintage versions. We're just seeing lots of them. And I think that's a great thing. This one is a two-tone. 222 is a lot of twos in there. But most importantly, it's got that champagne dial with that gorgeous yellow gold bezel. It just makes this watch feel the retro piece. I think, actually, it fits most naturally with. In steel, of course, that's the one that everyone wants. The most tool-esque. But this feels like a 1970s watch. And I'm here for it. I like the punch of yellow gold color. It just brings a luster, a luxury to it. This thing is just so retro. I love it. And given the price point, would I take the full steel or the two-tone? I don't know. Let me know what you think. It's awesome. So much to choose from. I'm going to keep going down the sort of gold, precious metal route. Talk about the Hoya Camaro 7228S. This thing really has caught me by surprise. One of the most striking things about this watch is that it shares so many of the characteristics of the ultra-rare Rolex Daytonas, particularly the John Blair special. You look at that watch, it's 18 karat gold. It's mid-size like this. It's got the chronograph with the Valjoux 72 movement in the back. It's sports-inspired. It's car-related. It's beautiful. It's from the 60s. It's got everything that this watch has. But the John Blair Daytona is something that goes for millions of pounds. This watch is 12 grand and I just think it's overlooked and I don't understand other than Rolex being on the dial and they're saying Hoya, which is not a bad thing. I don't understand why this one's so forgotten. I do just think the Hoya is that brand that's still overlooked. Everyone knows Hoya, of course, but the values don't represent in the same way that they do with Rolex and I think that's such a shame. This thing feels so interesting, so special, so purposeful and it's a rare thing. I think more people need to know about this watch. Gold prices are at an all-time high but if you melt this down, I will find you. And the reason I'll come and find you is because this is so very special. I love it. If you don't know coin watches, Piaget is the master of turning two coins, actually, into one wristwatch and this is a mid-size that I've never seen before. This is a $10. That makes it even more impressive because to fit a manual wind precious metal dress watch inside of a coin that size just blows my mind, frankly. But this is the party trick. God, it actually feels so crisp. Then you have this. Oh, right. I want to be so delicate with this thing because it's so special. Tiny, tiny little watch inside that pops up and is still really thin. It's not flapping around like it's been used a hundred times. That is probably two thirds the size of a five pence piece if that helps you get some sort of scale to it. It's tiny. You've got a solid rose gold, yellow gold case back. You've got a movement. You've got a dial. You've got two hands and then you've got a piece of sapphire and it's three millimeters thick inside a watch that's overall four millimeters thick. Blows my mind. Absolutely blows my mind. Piaget are the masters of ultra thin watchmaking and that is so special. You know how much I love Breguet and there's one here that's just staring at me. So let's talk about it. This is the Breguet Classique 3910. What I really like about it is that it's not yellow gold like so many other Breguets and there isn't one on the table but we often have them in. This is white gold and it makes those blued Breguet hands jump out at you. It makes it feel really fresh, really contemporary and although this is on a black alligator, the original strap I believe, this is a strap magnet. You can put this on anything and I love that because it brings what was originally I think intended as quite a stuffy traditional dress watch to a completely new audience. This is something that can be worn with greens, yellows, blues, grays, anything and it's vibrant. It makes all the features of that dress watch, those blued hands, the guilloché dial, it makes them jump out in a way that's really really striking. Very very interesting watchmaking, completely overlooked, really thin. Just a bloody great thing isn't it? I just when's the world gonna wake up to the fact that Breguet is so overlooked? That's got to be a theme of this week hasn't it? Apart from the Nautilus, overlooked watches. Brilliant. If you melt this one down I won't come and find you but I will be sorely disappointed in you. I do think it's a value proposition the same way that this Breguet is but platinum, Rolex, mid-size, almost a sort of explorer type dial but £6,000. Though that equation doesn't add up to me. It seems like it's completely wrong. Someone's missed a zero. Bear with me on the design of this because I think if you look at the photos of this watch you'll be overwhelmed by the sort of Versace-ness of the dial. This actually has a mother-of-pearl dial with the explorer numerals and three and nine. They're exactly the same font, feels like the same size. The mother-of-pearl is so striking. It's got small seconds. Obviously the explorer doesn't have that but I like a small seconds. I think it's a no-brainer at that price. Platinum, Rolex, £6,000 doesn't make any sense but it feels like a tool watch. It's not a tool watch but I love it. To cap off my thoughts on overlooked watches, Blancpain surely has to be included in the conversation. There's two here that I've not seen before and I really want to talk about. This one's a Villaret in yellow gold, 34 millimetres. So it feels absolutely in line with those sort of noughties, nineties noughties watches that came out with all those amazing complications. This is a slightly simpler watch. It's a complete calendar with a pointer date but it's yellow gold. It's a stunning dress watch with a moon phase indicator and it's well frankly too cheap for what it really is. It's a beautiful thing and then we have a flyback which is obviously a super cool watch. This is titanium and it's completely satinated throughout the case and has this really cool sort of sector-esque dial with dark grey and then black in the middle and these red pocks for the indices that give you increased legibility and all the things that you need for a sports watch but it just feels like a really stealthy and importantly really rare watch. I think Blancpain are the masters of this. They're like a really secret brand that don't shout but they silently in the corner make these amazing watches that people can easily forget about but god damn it they shouldn't. This is a super cool watch. I'm sort of enjoying twisting these screw down pushes and thinking to myself I wonder what this would look like on like a tropical strap or something like that. Very cool watches. Totally, totally overlooked. So that is this week's drop. Overlooked watches and so many absolute classics that you really need to know about. Do hit the website and check out the complete drop because this is what 30 watches out of a hundred going live. There's some absolute crackers in there. I'm so grateful to be back. I love it. I'm getting stuck in and I will see you again this time next week.