‘Type 7’ Dial 3700 Patek Philippe Nautilus

The greatest green dial Nautilus that’s ever been made didn’t start life that way. It wasn’t made in 2021. It wasn’t even made on purpose. Some of the most painstakingly excellent scholarship of the last decade was made by a collector and anonymous superhero who goes by ‘Mstanga’ on forums. Mr. Stanga studied all 3700 dial variations made, catalogued them, and found they were easily separated into seven distinct types. These early dials were made by Stern Fréres, with channels cut by hand, varying print, and varying construction style. The penultimate and ultimate types, 6 and 7, have a tendency to age into a very light seafoam green, which is as dramatic as any tropical tone and specific to the latest 3700 examples.

The natural variation here is likely equal parts environment (UV, heat, humidity, etc) and a natural byproduct of the dialmaking process at this point in time. This we expect because we see this tone in most Type 6 & 7s, but to varying degrees of extremeness. Interestingly, extracts from Patek Philippe for these dials will always note them as ‘noir’ or ‘black ribbed’, which has led some to speculate that these have taken on their color from an initial cold anthracite, but they weren’t ever true black. The dials themselves are clearly distinguished by two little dots next to the sigma signatures. On a Type 6, the dots are inside of the sigmas. On a Type 7, they moved to the outside. They are sometimes called ‘Bleu Nuit’ or Nighttime Blue dials, but some examples exhibit this effect more dramatically. This is about as strong and even as it gets. 

Many watches can only really be understood with the context of great timespans. Some embrace age gracefully, others less so . . .cough, Cubitius, cough. Relative to even 5711, the 3700 just gets better with respectful wear. With a dial like this, each extra year is just going make this tone more rich and individual. A green 5711 will remain unchanged, with pins rather than screws for a bracelet. Even though this is an odd form of tropical dial, they aren’t really valued considerably different to other 3700s, which is great if it’s your kind of thing. Tropical patina can divide, we all know that. But we can all agree that scholarship is rad and Genta’s original 3700 is probably yet to be bettered at Patek.

This example sports a beautiful green tone and even, original-looking tritium, granted not under UV. The case has seen a slight polish for sure, but not abusive at least. Both should factor into bidding. There is a very small mark between the pinion and 4, which should also be noted. It comes with a Certificate of Origin stamped 1981, appearing at auction later this month.