The successor costs double
By Julien Moreau, Geneva ยท
Replacing the steel 5711 with a white gold watch at twice the price was the most Patek thing Patek has done in my lifetime, and I say that with a certain admiration.
The 5811/1G arrived in 2022. It is a touch larger at 41 mm, still slim at 8.2 mm, with the same horizontally embossed blue dial, the same 26-330 S C (45 hours, open back), the same 120 m, and the bracelet at 25 mm. White gold looks almost exactly like steel unless you know where to look, so it is discreet in a way only very expensive things can afford to be. It is also noticeably heavier, which some people love and others notice by teatime.
Sixty-nine to seventy-two thousand dollars. You can make a perfectly reasoned case that it is the better watch, finished in a nobler metal. You cannot make a case that it is twice as good. Buy it if you want the Nautilus and the steel one is no longer available; do not buy it expecting the 5711's mystique to come with it.