Sunday, November 11, 2012

Most expensive watch ever could end up back on the block

This recent Bloomberg article states that Sheikh Al-Thani, the cousin of the Emir of Qatar, owes Sotheby's some 83 million dollars for unpaid auctions. He has now pledged a portion of his collection to repay this debt. The most important piece is the Henry Graves Supercomplication, which sold in 1999 for a groundbreaking 11,002,500 dollars (equivalent to 14,671,799 in 2011 dollars). That was the most expensive price for a watch at the time and should still be considering it was only superseded by a 25 million dollar chunk of diamonds made by Chopard (that may or may not have ever sold). 


The "most expensive watch" today is not really a watch


The watch was made in 1933 for the famous NY banker Henry Graves and houses 24 complications. With the watch potentially in Sotheby's possession, it is likely we will see the ultra complicated pocket watch for sale again in the near future. I don't believe it will fetch that sort of price today, but time will tell.





Patek Caliber 89, slightly more complicated but similar to the Graves watch

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