I have an early 40 degree Chest/Shoulder at home. Despite its age – I expect it was built in the 70’s or at most the early 80’s – no maintenance issues.
With regard to the chain, which was previously mentioned: The earlier machines were so overbuilt that I wouldn’t be surprised if the chain outlives me.
I wish I had the pullover.
The commercial gym that I go to has about 15 different nautilus machines- and I really wish they didn’t. The weights area of the gym is small as it is, and this so-called nautilus circuit takes up a hell of a lot of space…
My guess is these machines were made in the 90’s, some of them are decent- like the pull over, but some are just silly-
I can barely squeeze into the bi-curl and tri-extensioin machines, and it’s not like I’m huge- 6’1 205.
The compound row was really good- until I could max out the weight. I suppose you could do one armed rows, but I’d rather do DB rows in that case…
Leg-press, it had a nice feel but not enough weight.
The lat pull down is actually kind of nice- the handles rotate so you can use a more natural grip, and you can do one-armed pull downs.
The various others are ok-ish I guess, but I’ve seen better or heard of better examples of similar machines. I guess the owner wanted a pretty matching set of machines.
My guess is that owners also like prospects being told, “We have a full line of XXXX machines” rather than “We gotta buncha different machines here.”
And to some extent, among the general public Nautilus still has name recognition.
Nothing like it did decades ago, but still probably as much as any commercial exercise machine line. (Among the general public.)
Their offset cams were revolutionary at the time. Thus the name, of course.
And reflecting what was said earlier, their pullover machine was one of the best EVER.