Nautica Classic
Nautica (1992)

Decent concoction of Bergamot, the faintest of fruits and a Musk ending that is nothing ground breaking but quite good for a casual scent. I tried this years back and did not like it. Just purchased recently at a bargain price and find that it's quite nice for Spring and Summer.

OMG, have they REALLY discontinued Nautica classic??? What the heck is going on at Nautica (or whomever manufacatures it)? I purchased Nautica when it first came out and I love it to this very day. There have often been times when I've smelled this on other men and asked what they were wearing because it smelled so GOOD. You can imagine my surprise when they say Nautica. I am taken aback and say, "I own Nautica!" Yes, it's an aquatic with a very rich quality. I can't believe they've discontinued it because there is absolutely NOTHING else out there in cologne world that smells anything close to Nautica. Why don't they discontinue many of the Nautica iterations that have been released (and there have been many)??? They should keep their namesake fragrance because there are a LOT of us that still love the original classic version the BEST! I suppose I'm going to have to stock up while it's still available online (...and before I see it on e-Bay for $300.00 a bottle after it becomes rare and hard to find)! NOW, if Fendi would please bring back, or relaunch, Fendi Uomo and Fendi for Women. Those were two classic Fendi fragrances I was REALLY sad to see go. Not to mention Balencia Pour Homme by Balenciaga and Cristobal (both men's and women's) and Talisman and Rumba, both for women. I've seen Rumba online for sale, but it's apparently made by Ted Lapidus now. I also loved Creation (a beautiful intense white floral similar to Balenciaga's Rumba) and Creation The Vert (which smells almost identical to Light Blue by D&G). Again, I'm so saddened that Nautica "Classic" is being discontinued. :(

Nautica Classic is an adequate scent for an office environment. During the morning it has a fresh, mild, slightly bitter citrus tone that will not bother co-workers. You will not get compliments but no one will complain about the guy wearing obnoxious cologne at the next desk. In the afternoon, it fades away so that only you can notice it. It is boring, but boring can be the right choice in a conservative work setting. And, it is very inexpensive.

Its sibling, Nautica Voyage is a much more interesting scent that resembles expensive competitors. Some guys might wear Nautica Classic at work and wear Voyage in the evening.

Nautica Classic has been a real favorite not only when I wear it, but upon most other men who can sport it.

Nautica Classic is clean, fresh, masculine goodness that is in league with Davidoff's Cool Water. Whenever I smell it now, I get flashbacks of my younger years and truly appreciate its simple, memorable construction. Bergamot and lemon oil meshing with minty sage, sitting atop a nice amber/sandalwood/musk foundation that need not say anymore to make its point.

Nautica (1992) may very well be the Brut (1964) of the 90's. It had all the key ingredients that trending male scents had at the time, and had an enormous ad campaign to push this stuff onto every impressionable teen and relevance-chasing 20-something on the block, just like Brut. A key difference here was that Brut begat a shaving and toiletry dynasty as it aged from hip into conventional, while this stuff ended up becoming a parody of itself that resulted in it's reinvention in 2006 (with Nautica Blue), and the "classic" tag added to this stuff so the guys who would now be in their late 30's or 40's could spritz this on and relive their glory years. The huge sub-label Nautica has become is also laughable as each new scent just tries to reinvent the charm of the first. It's off-topic but kinda funny that nostalgia has a much faster turnover than it used to, whereas something had to at -least- make it past 20 years to be considered classic, while this stuff was getting that treatment only after little more than a decade. As I said, it was the Brut for Generation X, and it worked to that end. I personally associated this scent years ago with "too-cool-for-school" borderline sexual predators that were too busy trolling for dates in their Ray-Bans and BMW's their dads bought them to see how cliche and gross they were, but my opinion has since softened.

Nautica does get a point of merit in that it strove to be nothing like the other aquatics on the market. Cool Water (1988) set a very high-quality bar that others struggled to surpass, and is probably the only aquatic that really nails "ocean water" vibe. Polo Sport (1992) was soon to follow with a deeper and richer blue, while this came along in the same year and said: "Forget the water itself, what about the rest of the beach?" Nautica is an apparel company first and foremost, with a huge maritime lean just like the older Sears-owned Land's End label, so naturally the "boater culture" would be tacked onto everything, including this debut male fragrance original marketed by Paul Sebastian (owned by Halston now Coty). The scent is surprisingly lacking a lot of synthetics for an aquatic, which is perhaps why it doesn't have such a resounding watery accord like the others, instead using a traditional amber/musk base with some hedione, light woods, neroli, citrus, and herbs on top to approximate the smell of sand, sea foam, and ocean air. It's like a 90's approach to what the old 60's and 70's maritime-themed fragrances tried to do: capture the feeling of being by the water rather than the direct impression of it. I wouldn't say this makes up for it's conventional construction, but since we're dealing with merit and not innovation, it's worth mentioning. In execution, all this leads to is a scent that rings out the belfry then goes silent, since the mostly traditional base can't be made heavy enough to hold it down without ruining it's cool vibe. Wear time is at least long, and this is the epitome of forced casual demeanor, so use wherever.

This whole craze would come to an apex with Giorgio's Wings for men (1994) a few years after this, with a couple of also-rans coming in from Max Factor and the like to try and get a slice of the money being made on the genre in its infancy, and that's how it would sit until the 2000's saw a second wave of aquatics (which Nautica Blue was a part of), and thus give the need to re-brand this poor soul as "classic" before it really even was. It's definitely the most unique of the 90's aquatic craze, but I always dug ozonics like Claiborne for men (1989), Tommy by Hilfiger (1994) and L'eau de Issey Pour Homme (1994) a smidge better for workday use since they took the same nostril tinge and did much more complex things with it than just simulate water, but at least with Nautica you get the entire beach. My previous negative bias with this is based purely on it's associations: every dirtbag with something to prove wore this in the 90's (because it was so ubiquitous with all the advertising), and the actual performance of the original Nautica is just average so they'd over-apply like crazy. If you want to relive the era of grunge and the Ford Probe, reach for this as your daily driver, but for my purposes Nautica has found a home as a simple after-shower or after-shave refresher, since it wears so light and has that nice hedione clean. For a true classic from the 90's that doesn't feel like an episode of "Where are They Now?", look elsewhere. Thumbs Up

Reformulated and stripped down by Coty. Coty is MURDERING classic fragrances.