# @sothebyswatches on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DPR6H4HjFFl
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/35227596-sothebyswatches-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/dbd3f1b8dc.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-10-01T20:20:35.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Sotheby's Watches (@sothebyswatches) — https://gondola.cc/sothebyswatches

## Caption

And now, number one on our #SothebysArchives list of the five most complicated pocket watches to sell at Sotheby’s … 

This is the legendary Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication, completed in 1933 and featuring 24 complications.

Commissioned by New York banker and one of the greatest watch collectors to ever live, Henry Graves Jr., this horological masterpiece was created as part of his friendly rivalry with automobile magnate James Ward Packard — each seeking to own the most complicated watch ever made. The Supercomplication held the title of most complicated watch in the world for 56 years, until Patek Philippe produced the Calibre 89, in part a homage to the Graves watch.

Commissioned in 1925, the Supercomplication was crafted by hand over the course of eight years by ten contributing Swiss suppliers and collaborators to Patek Philippe. Among its remarkable features are a perpetual calendar, moon phases, sidereal time, sunrise and sunset indications, and a celestial chart depicting the night sky over Graves’s Fifth Avenue residence. The watch consists of 920 individual components, including 430 screws, 110 wheels, 120 mechanical levers or parts, and 70 jewels.

Sold by Sotheby’s twice, first on 2 December 1999 for CHF 11 million, and again on 11 November 2014 for CHF 23.2 million, the Graves Supercomplication set the record twice, becoming the most expensive timepiece ever sold at auction.

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## Tags

sothebysarchives

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