The elaborate Henry Graves Jr. Supercomplication watch, commissioned in 1925, sold at Sotheby’s this month for an astonishing $24 million (about £15 million). This exceeded expectations for the auction by at least $7 million.
Henry Graves Jr. was an American banker who ordered the bespoke piece in an attempt to create and own the world’s most elaborate and complicated watch. With twenty-four separate complications, it was indeed the most complex timepiece ever made at that time. Given this fact, it has often been cited as the world’s most famous timepiece.
The watch, and its human story, can illustrate very well how the early 20th-century Swiss watch-making industry operated.
The Story of Henry Grace Jr.'s Supercomplication Watch.
The story begins with a competition between two very wealthy businessmen: an Ohio car manufacturer named James Ward Packard and Henry Graves, a New York banker. Both men had a love of watches, and they were both determined to commission a Patek Philippe watch with the most complications — that is, those functions present on the watch which are in addition to simply telling the time. Popular complications include chronographs, calendars and minute repeaters.
1916 saw James Ward Packard ahead of the race with a pocket watch featuring 16 complications. Almost a decade later, in 1925, Patek Philippe was challenged by Henry Graves to design a 24-complication watch. Finally, after eight years of work, the watch was delivered to Graves in 1933.
Sadly, James Packard had died some years previously, at which point the competition had ended. Once the watch was delivered, it naturally attracted an unprecedented amount of attention for Henry Graves. This began to concern him deeply, and he considered disposing of it. However, the watch stayed in the Graves family until 1969.
Team Work
In order to create the Supercomplication, Patek Philippe enlisted the help of a number of other manufacturers. Such a watch was at that time far beyond the capabilities of just one workshop. It was common practice in those days to outsource the design and creation of different complications to other specialist companies within the Swiss watch-making community.
Each workshop would devise complications to add to the base movement. According to their records, Sotheby’s list nine separate workshops involved in the process of manufacture for the Henry Graves Jr. Supercomplication, including one each for project management and creating the case, the dials and the winding mechanism.
An interesting twist to the story comes from Stern Freres, the company responsible for designing the dials on the Patek Philippe masterpiece. In 1929 the brothers Jean and Charles Stern actually purchased the Patek Philippe brand.
The sale was a momentous occasion for the horology community, and one that would be talked about for many years to come.
