Since its introduction more than 45 years ago, the Patek Philippe Nautilus unveiled in 1976 altered the idea of a luxury sports watch in steel and truly revolutionized the landscape within the watch industry. The opus drawn by the legendary Gérald Genta whilst dining meters away from the Patek Philippe executives was inspired by the porthole of a ship constructed via a solid mono-block case with octagonal bezel. The quick sketch of his became a true timeless horological masterpiece that is now more popular than ever to be known as the “Jumbo” Nautilus ref. 3700.

Developed in the midst of the quartz crisis, the relentlessness to preserve haute horology and to execute something truly special commanding the price of a gold watch was most definitely a calculated risk taken by the firm, which clearly paid off. In fact advertisements from the launch era boast the fact that one of the most expensive watches in the world was made of steel.

The production of the 3700 was segmented into two main series with early examples (1976-1982) stamped with ref. 3700/1 and later examples (1982-1990) stamped with 3700/11. Early examples of the model featured a slightly wider bracelet measuring 16mm whilst later examples measured 14mm. The very first examples highlighted dials with small painted baton outer minute tracks, witnessed in examples bearing a case number lower than 1’303’999 and a movement number lower than 533’500. The second dial type featured a dotted outer minute track with “sigma SWISS sigma” applied on the bottom of the dial with an absence of serifs on the typography of the signature. As the dials for the reference were all handmade, the ribbed texture is achieved by carving each individual horizontal furrow by hand, the white gold applied hour markers were also handmade with the luminous material applied after.

The present watch was bought at the Patek Philippe Geneva salon by the father of the consignor who then gifted it to his son.