Second choice, first rate
By Julien Moreau, Geneva ยท
The Aquanaut arrived in 1997 to be the Nautilus for younger men, and it has since become the Nautilus for men who could not get a Nautilus.
I say that with affection, because the 5167A is an excellent watch in its own right. The case is a softened octagon, 40.8 mm across and 8.1 mm thick, which makes it one of the slimmest sports watches you can buy and gives it the comfortable, rounded feel of a pebble. The black dial has that embossed chequered pattern some collectors liken to a hand grenade, and the matching composite rubber strap (the tropical strap, as the house calls it) is probably the most comfortable strap at this end of the market. Inside is the 324 S C with 45 hours, shown through an open back, and the water resistance is 120 m, which is a rare thing on a Patek and allows you to swim with it without worrying.
My doubts. Rubber at twenty-five to twenty-seven thousand dollars is a difficult idea for traditionalists, and I am a traditionalist when I am tired. Forty-five hours is modest. And the 5167A shares with the Nautilus the problem of being nearly impossible to buy at a boutique without years of patronage, so in practice you are often looking at the secondary market and its premiums.
If you can get one at list, get it. If you can't, I would think hard before paying the premium. There is a lot of very good watchmaking at that price that comes without the queue.