Most complex hand-made watch ever? Sold for $24m

A Patek Philippe gold watch billed as the most expensive - and most complicated - in the world fetched a record $21.3 million on Tuesday when it went under the hammer in Switzerland.

AFP

The sale of the "Henry Graves Supercomplication", a handcrafted timepiece named after its original owner, a New York banker who ordered it in 1925, weighs more than half a kilo and comprises 900 separate parts.

AFP

It had been expected to sell for $15 million at a Sotheby's jewel and watch auction in Geneva.

AP

But frenzied bidding pushed the price up higher, and the final amount paid was "a new world record", Sotheby's said.

AFP

The winning bidder, who remained anonymous, will have to fork out a total of $24 million, including the commission.

AP

It took Patek Philippe five years to assemble the watch, which has Graves's name on the dial.

Tim Bourne, Sotheby's worldwide head of watches, said the sale confirmed the watch's "superstar status".

Bourne called it an "icon of the 20th century, a masterpiece that elevates the discipline of watchmaking to art".

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