The First Series Nautilus - 3700 Dash Dial

The Nautilus 3700 is one that for recent years been a little forgotten - collectors jaded by the 5711 hype, pushing the Nautilus to the side. But the 3700 is making a comeback, as collectors prepare for the 50th Anniversary of the model in 2026 - we've seen dealers and collectors alike piling them up.

Many articles have been written on the Nautilus, the 3700/1 vs the 3700/11, double signed examples.. but few are those that mention the niche, insider collectors' favourite : the dash dial.

The Nautilus dash dials were put on the very first batch of watches produced by Patek Philippe - early movements were made pre-1976 which led to some dash dials being registered as being made as early as 1974 on the Extracts of Archives.

The dash dials are usually considered to have been placed on watches with case serial up to 533'999 - anything after that is considered litigious.

The serial ranges most seen for dash dials include :

532'7XX

532'8XX

532'9XX

533'8XX

533'9XX

N.B. one serial increment is not one 3700 watch - cases were made in batches which included cases from other models.

Only 3500 3700/1a are estimated to have been produced. It is estimated only 150-200 dash dial 3700/1a were made - many of which have been replaced in service. This is even more important on a sports watch that people wear a lot and had serviced frequently as opposed to say a 3970 first series where owners cherished and baby'd their timepiece. This results in dash dials being extremely rare and difficult to find in pristine condition.

The dash dial being the very first Nautilus dial produced, the manfucturing technique was still a little experimental which leads in a vast array of aging on dash dials. Of the handful we've seen, we have only seen one in perfect condition - others ranging from light pitting on the dial to full blown tropical dials.

Dash dials also have slight differences compared to other /1 watches. The clasp in only marked Patek Philippe and not Gay Freres. The overall font of the "Patek Philippe Genève" and "sigma swiss sigma" is bolder - and also the date wheel font is thicker than that of later models. A small difference that makes an aesthetic difference when holding the two side by side. Earlier 3700/1a cases were also polished differently with much squarer angles as pictured in this original ad from the time.

The 3700a is a watch that will be getting much attention in the year to come due to the lack of steel Nautilus in the current collection, general similarities in price between a 3700a and a 5711a which is much much much more produced - and the 50th Anniversary of the model to come. The dash dial is one of the sleeper : "if you know you know" pieces that collectors have always, and continue to love. The penultimate being the elusive yellow gold dash dial, and double signed dash dial examples.