Nautilus 3800 Stainless Steel / Black - Roman

In Context

At 37.5 mm it sits just under the modern norm — the band that suits the widest spread of wrists. At 8.3 mm thick it is about average for a modern wristwatch. The case back is open, so the movement is visible without taking the watch apart, and the sapphire crystal will resist everything short of deliberate abuse. 120 m is genuine swimming resistance — more than the shape of this watch suggests it would need.

The movement winds itself from the motion of your wrist. At 28,800 vph the seconds hand advances 8 times a second.

3800/1A-XII stands on its own in this catalogue — no other reference here shares its base number. It pairs a blue dial with a stainless steel case.

The in-house automatic with central seconds that replaced the Jaeger-LeCoultre base of the original Nautilus when the 3800 arrived. It is unusual among Patek calibres in carrying neither the Geneva Seal nor a Gyromax balance. A quickset date followed in 1987, and by 1992 Patek had moved the model on to the 330, which did qualify for the seal.