The Supercomplication watch, designed by Patek Philippe, has a price of 8 million euros and was ordered by the banker John Graves, from Massachusetts (USA).
John Graves was a multimillionaire banker from Concord (MA, USA) who dedicated his life to the collection of jewelleries and who was always looking for the most extraordinary findings. Together with James Ward Packard, but without having ever personally met each other, they had an ongoing competition to see who could buy or get the best watch ever designed within the world. By the time that Packard was in his deathbed, satisfied because he had finally achieved what then amply was the very best watch ever created, Graves ordered a new watch to the famous and unmatched Patek Philippe. The banker had to wait for 5 years before his dream came true and he could hold his new outstanding master piece, which costed him 5 times the amount that Packard had paid by his. From 1968 to 1999 this amazing watch was exposed at Chicago’s “Museum of Time”. Later on, it was sold to an anonymous buyer for 11 million dollars and therefore becoming the second most expensive watch ever. The identity of this buyer remained a mystery until 2012, when it was unveiled that he was Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani, a member of Qatar’s royal family. Nowadays, it’s the most valuable piece in Patek Philippe’s museum.
Patek Philippe took more than 5 years in designing and building the most singular and unique watch ever made. It has a golden yellow colour and it is considered so remarkable due to the technology that is hidden behind. In horology, a “complication” is any mechanical feature that goes beyond the movement of the hands indicating the hours, minutes and seconds. This wonder boasts up to 24 different functions, more than whatever other watch designed in the same period, including but not limited to a calendar with lunar phases, sunrise and sundown coordinates, position of stars, Big Ben’s London melody… This extraordinary artwork is also equipped with the repetition of minutes function, which consists of indicating by the sound what time it is. This was especially useful to know the time in the dark or for blind people. To do that, different sounds are used to represent the hours, the quarters of an hour and lastly the minutes. The Supercomplication employs the same melody as the Big Ben does. In conclusion, a list of characteristics that are definitely unique for the time that the watch was created.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/12/1202_most_expensive_timepieces/2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Graves_%28banker%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complication_(horology)
http://www.tiptopwatches.com/watch-facts/expensive-complicated.html
