Who Makes The Best Patek Philippe Nautilus?

[Emperor Penguin]

I presently own a Patek Philippe Nautilus I bought from Puretime and I like it a lot. However, the only flaw I see with it is that the datewheel is a bit small and not far enough to the right. If you look at all the replica Nautiluses among the popular dealers, you will see that they all have that flaw; perhaps they were all made in the same factory. For the genuine Nautilus, the datewheel is slightly larger, and a couple millimeters to the right, nearly flush on the right side. Also, the font is different, and the replica has a little tiny white dot to the right of the date window, whereas the genuine has no white dot, given the date window is more flush to the right edge of the dial. What I can't figure out is why can't the replica watchmakers duplicate something so relatively simple to imitate? Why can't they set the datewheel more flush with the right edge of the dial?

More importantly, I'm wondering if there are any Nautilus reps around that feature the correct datewheel (i.e., a little larger, correct font, more flush to the right edge of the dial, and no white dot to the right of the date window). Anyone we know selling such a rep?

[FxrAndy]

Welcome

a first post from someone who knows what he wants, i think you will be as frustrated as the rest of us with these faults

[roflwaffle]

afaik, theres only 2 versions of the nautilus...

[RLudlowe]

Why can't they set the datewheel more flush with the right edge of the dial?

Because they're using the stock datewheel that comes with the ETA clone movements. Making a custom datewheel would be expensive, and I guess they don't sell enough Nauti reps to make it worth it -

BTW - there are several factories that make Nauti Reps, but they all use the 2824 clone movement with stock datewheel.

You might like a 3800 rep better than the 5711, the datewheel is the same size but the case is smaller so the date location is closer to correct.

Edited June 25, 2008 by RLudlowe