Patek Philippe's $ 31 million grand master climax becomes the most expensive watch ever sold

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With a hammer price of CHF 31,000,000 (US $ 31.2 million) reached at the charity auction Christie & # 39; s Only Watch November 9, 2019 in Geneva, Patek Philippes one-of-a-kind Ref . The 6300A-010 Stainless Steel Grandmaster Chime became the most expensive watch ever sold.

Expectations were already high when Lot 28 came to the block. Some speculated Grandmaster Chime, despite the low estimate of CHF 2 500 000 to CHF 3 000 000, may not sit
Paul Newmans
personal Rolex Daytona, the previous record holder of the most expensive wristwatch of all time. That piece went for $ 17,752,500
Phillips
auction in New York two years ago.

But as a bidding war escalated in the final minutes of the sale, the room squeezed as the price climbed over the $ 24 million mark and took over Patek Philippe in 1933
Henry Graves Supercomplication
pocket watch (which sold for a record $ 24 million at a Sotheby's auction in 2014), and the audience realized the story was done. (Christie's did not reveal the winning bidder's identity.)

Grandmaster Chime was created to celebrate Patek Philippe's 175th anniversary in 2014. When the brand's most complicated wristwatch has ever been built, the piece made some sound, quite literally. With several striking features among the 20 complications of two slices, it was a testimony to Patek Philippe's longstanding mastery of chiming complications.

The brand invested seven years and more than 100,000 hours to create the play with Patek's first grand sonnerie (French for "grand"), which automatically beats hour and quarter hour every 15 minutes. It is paired with a petite sonnerie that automatically casts hours and quarters without repeating the hours of each quarter, and a minute repeater that chimes hours, quarters and minutes on request.

In addition to these traditional striking features, the watch is equipped with modern chiming complications, such as a patented alarm that casts the alarm time as a minute repeater and a patented date repeater that chimes the date on request.

Grandmaster Chime has six patents, including one for the mechanism that allows you to easily swing and lock the engraved double face, so you can choose which of the two dials you want to show off.

The unique version of stainless steel is designated with a pink gold (or "salmon") disc inscribed with the words " The Only One, " and an ebony-black dial with an instant perpetual calendar with a four-digit year view.

Independent watchmaker F. P. Journe also achieved a record in sales with Astronomic Blue. Lot 11, a prototype developed specifically for Only Watch, sold for CHF 1.8 million, a record for the most expensive F.P. The Journe piece ever sold at auction.

And Lot 37, the two-tone CODE 11.59 of Audemar's Piguet Tourbillon Openworked, achieved a hammer price of CHF 1 million, well above the estimate of CHF190,000 to CHF240,000. [19659005] In total, the two-hour sale of 50 donated unique pieces totaled a record-high CHF38.59 million ($ 38.86 million), while Patek Philippe accounted for the largest portion of money raised to do research on a cure for
Duchenne
Muscular dystrophy (DMD), a genetic disease affecting one of 3,000 male births around the world. To put this number in context, the two-year event totaled around $ 40 million compared to the previous seven issues.

"Breaking records is obviously a source of pride and happiness," he said
Luc Pettavino,
founder of Only Watch and president of the Association Monégasque contre les Myopathies, which supports scientific and medical research at DMD, in a press release. "What matters most today is the difference we will be able to make in researching muscular dystrophies and for hundreds of thousands of patients and families around the world to make their lives better."