Originally launched amidst the quartz cr🦋isis in 1976, the Nautilus designed by legendary watchmaker Gerald Genta was credited as one of the watches to revive fine mechanical movements.

The reference 3712 made its debut in 2005 and was the most complicated Nautilus of its time featuring date, moon phases, and power reserve indications. These were asymmetrically displayed on the telltale horizontally embossed dial. The present example is known as the early 1st series by recognising the "3 red ꧋dots" at the power reserve indication instead of 4. Discontinued shortly after its release, only around 1700 pieces of the model exclusively produced in stainless steel were said to be sold.

Succeeding the 3712 is the reference 5712 which was released in 2006 to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the Nautilus. While visually very similar, minute differences such as the lack of an index at 7 o’clock of the 5712 and different case♈ constructions separate the two highly coveted references.