The White Nautilus - Patek Philippe Ref. 3800a

Blue dial this, blue dial that, every sports watch on the market has tried the blue dial. But many collectors lust for a white dial sports watch – whether a Daytona, or an Alaska project – the white dial has this special appeal to it.

When designing the Nautilus and the Royal Oak, Gerald Genta drew them with dark hued dials, a dark petrol blueish black for the Nautilus and a Dark grey black for the Royal Oak. Today, we know both these models exist in alternative dial colours, white, olive green and Tiffany blue for the Nautilus – and pretty much every colour you can imagine on the Royal Oak.

For Patek, the Nautilus hasn’t been touched much since its creation, the model even ceased to exist in its regular time-only Jumbo format during a period of close to 20 years between the 3700 and the 3711 (yes 3710, I know, let’s not even go there). Before that, in the 14 years of production the 3700 only changed bracelets once (/1 to /11 from 14mm to 16mm clasp) and had some slight dial variations.

On the other hand, when the 3800 was introduced in 1981, Patek seemed to use this as an experimental reference – using a matching date-wheel, hacking date systems, and introducing the white dial.

Under the reference 3800 Patek took more liberty in terms of dial design, with special Arabic numeral dials, Sunburst dials, Dauphine hands – the reference saw lots of different dial variations.

However, it also introduced for the first time in current collection the white ribbed dial. Of course, there was the prototype 3700 white dial and some special orders, but never in the catalogue. Modifying the ribbed dial was like modifying Genta’s original sketch.

Of course, most clients opted for the classic blue dial, much like today with the 5711 – this reflects in the rarity of the 3800 white dials, much rarer than its blue counterpart. Depending on the years of production, the 3800 also had different date discs: the earlier ones had a black date disc which looks incredible on a blue dial, but a little striking on a white dial. Then we had the white disc and finally the white disc with stylized font (which really doesn’t look as good to me).

Date disc variations are illustrated in A Collected Man’s article on the ref. 3800.

Pictured in this article is a gorgeous 3800a White Dial signed by Tiffany & Co. – very few double signed white dials have appeared (only the 2nd I’ve stumbled across, the other being a Gübelin dial) – adding to the collectible appeal of the white dials. This example has its zapon layer that has slightly discoloured making for an incredible dial texture in between the ribbing of the dial.

Zapon varnish is used on dials to protect the metal dials from oxidising ; this layer often starts to peel on vintage watches, it’s a great way to evaluate the quality of a vintage watch.

Many collectors favour their white dial 5711 to the blue dial – probably because of the lower chance of bumping into another – which is also true for the 3800. Not to mention the fact that on a reference like the 3800 that was so experimental with dials, it only seems right to rock the white dial !