Sotheby’s Geneva, 11 November 2014 – the Henry Graves Supercomplication

Made by Patek Philippe in 1933, the Henry Graves Supercomplication is the most famous watch in the world and the most complicated watch ever made completely by hand. Its reappearance on the market, fifteen years after its record sale, coincides with Patek Philippe’s 175th anniversary. It will be offered in Sotheby’s Geneva sale of Important Watches on 11 November 2014 with an estimate in excess of CHF 15 million.

In 1925 Patek Philippe was commissioned by Henry Graves, a prominent New York banker, to produce the most complicated watch in the world. It took three years of research and five years of work by the most skilled technicians. The result is a gold openface minute-repeating chronograph clockwatch with Westminster chimes, with a perpetual calendar, moon phases, sidereal time, power reserve, and indications for the time of sunset and sunrise and the night sky over New York City. With a total of 24 complications, it held the title of the world’s most complicated watch for 56 years, and was then surpassed only by watchmakers working with computer-assisted machines.

Sotheby’s first sold the Graves Supercomplication in New York in December 1999, as part of a sale of 81 masterpieces from the Time Museum. Offered with an estimate of US$3–5 million, it sparked an extended bidding contest and sold for a record US$11 million, becoming the most expensive timepiece ever sold at auction.