Quite a piece...pocket change!!The most expensive watch ever boughtThe most expensive watch ever made was the result of a long lasting feud between two American financiers. During a time when most of the United States didn’t have two sticks to rub together the two businessmen, New York financier Henry Graves Jr. and Ohio automobile engineer James Ward Packard, duked it out in a game of “who can have the most ridiculous watch”.
Packard commissioned 13 complicated watches from Patek Philippe between 1900 and 1927 with complications including a perpetual calendar with phases and age of the moon, indication of sunrise and sunset, and a celestial chart depicting the constellations of stars in the sky over Packard’s home in Ohio.
Graves Jr. wasn’t going to roll over that easily, over a similar time period he comissioned complicated watched from the same guy who probably couldn’t believe his luck. To have two businessmen throwing money at you in the hope that you eventually roll over and say “this is as complicated as it gets” is surely a stroll up dream street for watch manufacturers.
The process eventually ended with a watch comissioned by Graves Jr. that boasted 24 complications. It took three years to design and five years to produce. The 24 carrat gold time piece was finished in 1933, had a different horological function for each hour of the day and included a chart of the night sky over Graves’ home in New York.
Triumphant in his victory, Graves died in 1953 leaving the watch to people lucky enough to be written into his will who sold the watch to the Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois. In 1999 the museum closed and their collection of watches was sold off at a Sotheby’s auction. With a pre-sale estimate of $3 million, the Graves watch eventually sold for $11,003,500 to an anonymous collector.
That’s around half a million dollars for every complication in the watch and whoever bought it will be lucky enough to know how bright it is at the home of its original owner.
$11,003,500original source --->>> http://blog.watchsuperstar.com/index.php/2009/04/21/the-worlds-most-expensive-watches/
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