“When we were approached by the owner to help him create an NFT for his Nautilus watch, we jumped at the opportunity,” said Danny Sangha, co-founder of SM-ART. “Our entire mission for this platform is to bring fine art, rare collectibles and objets d’art back into the world again. So many beautiful pieces sit in vaults hidden away from pubic view – never seen and never appreciated. We wanted to discover a way to breathe life back into these works of art through a new medium. NFT’s are a way to do that, a way for people to be able to enjoy and own these pieces through a digital construct.”
The first-ever NFT of a Patek Philippe timepiece has created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for members of the public to take ownership and invest in a piece of history – The Nautilus 5711/1A-010 is a rare watch that is no longer in production and continues to appreciate in value and demand and by proxy, creating the same demand for the NFT. Through a new blazing display of this time-honoured piece, the Nautilus legacy carries on in NFT form, harnessing progressive innovation and creativity.
“SM-ART has proven that NFT’s have a place in the luxury world and we are especially proud that we’re pioneers in this new digital field,” says Robina Latham, co-founder of SM-ART. “It’s incredibly important to us that each NFT is carefully curated, selected and verified by our experts. We work with private collectors, artists, museums and galleries to ensure these NFT’s are based on real artworks or a new original piece is conceived by the artists themselves. This NFT of the Patek Philippe ‘Nautilus’ is a case in point – the response we’ve received so far has been overwhelming and we are excited to see this NFT make history at auction.”
The ‘Nautilus’, imbued with a distinct interpretation of casual elegance, was first launched in 1976 and was revolutionary for its out-of-the-box construction. The choice of stainless steel was completely unusual for a luxury watch. The octagonal bezel with rounded corners departed from conventional designs. Its case was inspired by a ship’s porthole. The exceptional robustness was an extreme challenge then for a regularly produced watch, and the interplay of polished and satin-brushed finissage emphasized the uniqueness of the form elements.
“The NFT of the Patek Philippe ‘Nautilus’ is as groundbreaking and unconventional as the watch was in its time and we wanted to pay homage to that,” says Sangha. “We were very cognizant of the craftsmanship that went into it and has taken the same care with the NFT development. While there is a very brief sneak peek of the NFT on our website, the full NFT won’t be revealed until the day of the auction. We will be announcing the auction dates soon on our social media channels and websites, but it will be around mid-November. It’s an incredible investment opportunity for someone and the NFT will only continue to appreciate in value alongside the value of the watch itself.”
Following the completion of the NFT auction, the physical ‘Nautilus’ watch will be fractionalized through a non-fungible asset (NFA), where members of the public who are registered on the SM-ART platform can buy shares of the actual timepiece and trade those shares, as the value of the timepiece continues to increase through demand.
