The ‘Holy Grail’ of watches sold at auction today to a Replica Patek Philippe mystery buyer – for a world record £15.1million.
Wealthy collectors descended on Geneva, Switzerland, for the sale of the Henry Graves Supercomplication.
Made by Patek Philippe, it is the most complex watch ever assembled entirely by hand and was offered with an estimate of £10million.
A bidding frenzy soon broke out in the Sotheby’s auction room after an opening offer of 9m Swiss francs (£5.85m).
There were tense moments in the auction house and bids became drawn out around the 18m mark (£11.7m).
The hammer eventually went down at a staggering 20.6million (£13.4m) – a new world record with the auction house – sparking a round of applause.
With auction costs, the final price paid by the ‘man in a red tie’ was £15.1 million.
Patek Philippe was commissioned by New York banker Henry Graves to make the watch in 1925.
It took Swiss horologists three years to research and a further five to make, completing it in 1933.
The watch has a gold openface minute repeating chronograph clockwatch with Westminster chimes.
It also features a perpetual calendar, moon phases, sidereal time, power reserve, and indications for time of sunset and sunrise and the night sky of New York City.
In total, there are 24 horological complications and ‘The Graves’ held the title of the world’s most complicated watch for 56 years.
The masterpiece has only been surpassed by technicians working with the aid of computers. It was last Replica Patek Philippe wound in 1969 and is still in working order.