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RAPAPORT... Sotheby's Geneva sold The Henry Graves Supercomplication timepiece for a record $24 million (CHF 23.2 million), far surpassing an $11 million auction price tag for the same pocket watch in 1999. Five bidders competed for the the watch during a 15 minute bidding war. The Henry Graves Supercomplication was completed by Patek Philippe in 1932 and earned that status as the most complicated watch ever made by hand. Sotheby's sale of important watches achieved a total of $32,618,159. Daryn Schnipper, the chairman of Sotheby’s watch division, and Tim Bourne, Sotheby’s worldwide head of watches released a joint statement, claiming, “This stellar result confirms the rockstar status of The Henry Graves Supercomplication. It is more than a watch. It is a masterpiece that transcends the boundaries of horology and has earned its place among the world’s greatest works of art." In 1925, Patek Philippe was commissioned by Henry Graves, a prominent New York banker, to specifically produce the most complicated watch in the world. The resulting piece was a product of three years of research and five years’ effort by skilled technicians. The timepiece is a gold openface minute repeating chronograph clockwatch with Westminster chimes. Among the features it incorporates are perpetual calendar, moon phases, sidereal time, power reserve and indications for time of sunset and sunrise and the night sky of New York City. Sotheby's also sold a Patek Philippe Reference 3974 in yellow gold, with automatic perpetual calendar, minute-repeating and moon-phases, circa 1991, for $339,564 against a presale estimate of between $245,000 and $373,000. A rare Daytona “Paul Newman” in yellow gold, circa 1968, sold for $252,867, far surpassing a high presale estimate of $128,000. The IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “The Last Flight,” which was designed to commemorate 70 years since the death of celebrated writer and pilot Antoine de Saint Exupéry, sold for $41,284.
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