A Patek Philippe watch sold for rupees 222 crores in auction
A one-of-a-kind Patek Philippe watch sold for $31 million (Rs 222 crore) at a charity auction in Geneva, making it the most expensive wristwatch ever auctioned.
The Patek was sold as part of the Only Watch auction held by Christie’s on Saturday to benefit research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy. For the sale, watchmakers including Patek, Audemars Piguet and F.P. Journe created and donated one-of-a-kind watches, which are coveted by top watch collectors around the world.
Patek Philippe- the brand
The Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication is one of the most complicated mechanical pocket watches ever created. The 18-karat gold watch has 24 complications and was assembled by Patek Philippe.
It was named after banker Henry Graves Jr who commissioned it out of his desire to outdo the Grande Complication pocketwatch of American automaker James Ward Packard.The two were both at the top of the watch collecting world, regularly commissioning innovative new timepieces.
It took three years to design, and another five years to manufacture the watch, which was delivered to Henry Graves on January 19, 1933.
The Supercomplication was the world’s most complicated mechanical timepiece for more than 50 years, with a total of 24 different functions. These included Westminster chimes, a perpetual calendar, sunrise and sunset times, and a celestial map of New York as seen from the Graves’s apartment on Fifth Avenue.
The record was bested in 1989 when Patek Philippe released the Patek Philippe Calibre 89, but the Supercomplication remains the most complicated mechanical watch built without the assistance of computers.
The fact that the sale was for charity helped boost the bidding prices, according to the auctioneers.
The buyer of the watch has not been identified.
The Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime reference 6300A-010 is the only one of its kind that will be made in stainless steel. It has 20 complications, including a grande and petite sonnerie, a minute repeater, instantaneous perpetual calendar with a four-digit year display, second time zone, and 24-hour and minute subdial. The watch’s most unique feature is front and back dials – one salmon coloured, the other black – that can be flipped or reversed.
The steel Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010 smashed the previous record for an auctioned watch – the $17.7 million fetched in 2017 for the Rolex Daytona once owned by Paul Newman.
