Watch Paparazzi

Entrepreneur Alberto Franceschi spotted wearing Patek Philippe

Alberto Franceschi, the entrepreneur behind Milan-based sneaker brand HideAndJack, was recently spotted wearing what has become the single most discussed steel watch of the past decade: the Patek Philippe Nautilus reference 5711/1A-010. The sighting is a natural fit — a founder operating at the intersection of luxury, design, and street culture reaching for the watch that has come to embody exactly that convergence.

The 5711/1A-010 is the definitive iteration of Gérald Genta's 1976 Nautilus design. Its 40 mm stainless steel case retains the iconic porthole-style bezel with integrated horizontal lugs, a construction that was radical for a luxury sports watch at its introduction and remains architecturally distinctive today. The blue dial — horizontal embossed, applied baton hour markers, luminous fill — sits under a sapphire crystal with a subtlety that rewards close inspection. Water resistance is rated to 120 metres, and the bracelet integrates seamlessly into the case, a detail that still sets the benchmark for integrated-bracelet finishing.

Beneath the dial runs Patek Philippe Caliber 26-330 S C, a self-winding movement beating at 28,800 vph with a 45-hour power reserve. The movement is finished to Patek's Seal standard — a proprietary certification that superseded the Geneva Seal and governs both aesthetic finishing and functional performance. The result is a manually wound-quality finish inside a daily-wear automatic, which partly explains why this reference commands the respect it does among serious collectors.

Patek Philippe discontinued the 5711/1A-010 in January 2021, a move that simultaneously closed an era and detonated the secondary market. The announcement was accompanied by the introduction of a Tiffany-blue variant — a limited farewell edition — that only amplified collector obsession with the standard blue-dial reference. Today the 5711/1A is broadly considered the blue-chip benchmark of the modern steel sports watch segment.

At retail the 5711/1A-010 was listed at approximately $34,893 USD before discontinuation. On the current grey market the reference trades reliably above $170,000, a multiplier of roughly five times retail that reflects both genuine scarcity and sustained demand. For Franceschi, a founder who has built a brand on the idea that luxury and culture are inseparable, the choice of this particular Nautilus reads less like a status statement and more like a considered position.