The Patek Philippe Nautilus 3712/1A occupies a particularly interesting place within the history of the Nautilus. Introduced in 2005, it was produced for an exceptionally short period of approximately one year, with some estimates suggesting as little as eight months, before being replaced by the 5712 in 2006. Despite this incredibly brief existence, the 3712 established a design that would remain within the Patek Philippe catalogue for more than two decades afterwards.
Prior to the 3712, the Nautilus had remained relatively simple. The original 3700 featured only a date, while the later 3710 introduced a power reserve indicator. With the 3712, Patek Philippe went considerably further, combining a power reserve, moonphase, pointer date and subsidiary seconds for the first time within a Nautilus.
The resulting dial is perhaps one of the most unusual Patek Philippe designs of the modern era. Its indications are deliberately asymmetric, with the power reserve positioned between 10 and 11 o'clock, subsidiary seconds between 4 and 5 o'clock and the moonphase and pointer date sitting towards 7 o'clock. On paper it sounds almost unnecessarily complicated, yet somehow everything works together remarkably well. It is a layout that has since become immediately recognisable as part of the Nautilus family.
While visually very similar to the later 5712, the 3712 is quite a different watch when examined closely. Its stainless-steel case measures approximately 42mm across and retains the earlier two-piece Nautilus construction, rather than the three-piece case introduced with the 5712. This gives the 3712 a noticeably slimmer and more vintage-feeling profile, retaining much of the character associated with earlier Nautilus references such as the 3700 while offering considerably greater everyday functionality.
The dial itself also differs in a number of small but important ways. The horizontal grooves are wider, the hour markers are shaped differently and the smaller date register allows for a tiny hour marker at 7 o'clock, something that disappeared with the 5712. These are subtle differences individually, but together give the 3712 a character that feels distinctly closer to the earlier generations of the Nautilus.
The present example is an early variation of the 3712, distinguished by the three red dots found towards the end of its power reserve indicator. During its already remarkably short production run, Patek Philippe quietly revised this detail from three dots to four, with later examples adopting the configuration that would subsequently continue onto the 5712. As such, these three-dot watches represent the earliest execution of the 3712 and the original form of what would become one of the longest-standing complicated Nautilus designs.
Powering the watch is the automatic Calibre 240 PS IRM C LU, based around Patek Philippe's celebrated ultra-thin Calibre 240 architecture. Its micro-rotor construction allowed Patek Philippe to accommodate the additional indications while retaining the remarkably slim proportions that are such an important part of the 3712's appeal.
For me, the 3712 is one of the most interesting modern Nautilus references. Its production was almost strangely short, yet the design it introduced proved enduring enough to survive essentially intact through the 5712 that followed.
More importantly, it sits at a particularly appealing point between two generations of the Nautilus. It retains the slimmer profile, two-piece construction and finer proportions associated with the earlier watches, while introducing the complications and usability expected from a modern Patek Philippe. In this early three-dot configuration, it represents the very first iteration of that formula and arguably the purest expression of the complicated Nautilus.
