Watch Of The Week - A 1985 Patek Philippe Nautilus 3800/001

This weird thing used to happen to me when I thought about the Nautilus.

My stomach would bubble and the back of my neck would sweat. A strange biological reaction for sure, but one that would happen like clockwork whenever I would talk about, think about or see the Genta-designed Icon from Patek in the metal. This is a bit dramatic of course, but I put the watch on such a pedestal in my mind that I'm terrified of seeing it in person. What if it doesn't live up to my expectations? Or it doesn't fit me well? The world would surely crumble around me. Yes, I need to get a life but luckily for me, the world hasn’t yet ended and the Nautilus is one of those rare cases where you absolutely should meet your heroes. It’s an incredible watch, if only I could stop being so scared of it…

Welcome to the first-ever Watch Of The Week, a column in partnership with Rexer Once a week the boys at Rexer will let me loose inside their safe to pick out a watch to feature here. Buckle up, there’s some incredible stuff coming. The watch I chose for the first-ever WOTW, however, is an incredible Patek Philippe Nautilus 3800/001 from 1985. Talk about starting with a bang!

What is the Patek Philippe 3800/001?

Introduced in 1981, this particular reference was a mid-size alternative to the well and truly colossal (not) 39mm 3700, the original reference released in 1976. It shrunk the familiar design to 37.5 mm but kept the original proportions that Gérald Genta had penned five years earlier. A small watch by today's standards but one that would have fit in well with the tastes of the time.

This reference of Nautilus also introduced a centrally mounted seconds hand, powered by the in-house Caliber 335 SC, to the collection. Perhaps intended as a purely practical or aesthetic improvement, I see it a little differently. At the time, quartz watches were destroying the Swiss watch industry and I have a feeling that the inclusion of a running seconds hand was an indication that the Nautilus hadn’t followed the battery-powered crowd - Signalling to your peers that you haven’t jumped onto the latest technological trend. It’s subtle but clever marketing.

Offered in steel, two-tone and precious metal variants, this beautiful example in 18k yellow gold with a champaign dial is my pick of the bunch. There’s something so special about gold that has had 40 years to marinate, it’s so much more characterful than the modern stuff.

What’s Special About It?

If I can be a little bold here for a second, I want to say that if it wasn’t for the 3800, the Nautilus would have gone the way of the Dodo. That is to say, Patek would have given up on it and gone back to making complicated dress watches.

It sounds crazy today, but people just didn’t like the original when it came out. It was too big and Patek had trouble getting it on people’s wrists. The smaller 3800 gave people a taste of the Genta design without bucking the small watch trend that everyone was used to. As we all know, the Nautilus eventually became Patek Philippe’s most popular watch, but without a gateway drug like the 3800, it would have been a hard pill to swallow.

It’s like drinking beer for the first time, that first sip is bitter, but as you keep going, the room starts to spin and that golden liquid goes down like a dream. In this case, the 3800 is an approachable lager and the 3700 is a dark stout. Do you get me? You will love the complex taste of a stout, but it shouldn’t be your first beer. Now I want to go to the Pub…

Sold in 1985 by Cortina Watch in Singapore, this is a very nice example of a Gold 3800/001 Nautilus. It has its original papers and invoice, great but not super important in my opinion, it’s lightly polished but still has that classic Patek finishing that we all love. This is a watch that may very well be the reason the Nautilus still exists today. Small in size, big on responsibility.

Why I love it

This is the kind of watch that you don’t see very often, let alone in person, so when the team at Rexer told me they would have it in their office for one day, I jumped at the chance to come and see it. As I walked through the door and saw it lying there on the tray I could feel my stomach churning in anticipation but I was determined to stay cool. I need to act like a professional in front of the Rexer guys…

I spent the next 30 minutes taking photos, trying it on and imagining a world where it was mine to take home. A boy can dream. Then, after spending a few days researching the history of the 3800, I put it on and forgot it all. The size, the bracelet, and the gold, all contribute to making a watch that transcends history, ergonomics and trends. Maybe it doesn’t matter where it came from or what it did, it’s incredible enough in the present moment. Slip it over your hand and it feels like a silk ribbon, it’s heavy but not overpowering, and it’s subtle enough that I could wear it every day.

I hope its new owner does just that, this watch deserves it.

Cya in the next one.