24 млн - продано
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-1...ece-price.html
The Patek Philippe Supercomplication pocket watch sold for 23.2 million Swiss francs ($24 million) at Sotheby’s in Geneva, setting the new record price for any timepiece sold at auction. It has held the record since 1999 when it last sold at Sotheby’s for $11 million.
“The Swiss masterpieces of watchmaking are now considered by investors and collectors as real pieces of art, like paintings or sculptures,” Jean-Claude Biver, director of timepieces for Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, said before the sale.
Hailed as the world’s most complicated watch made entirely by hand, the Supercomplication was at the center of a battle between two watch collectors who tried to outdo one another other in the 1920s and 1930s. The watch’s 24 functions include playing the melody of the Westminster chimes and displaying the night sky over New York’s Central Park. It has 920 components, comes in at over 1.5 inches thick, and weighs more than one pound. The original watchmaker even made a note to point out that the Tiffany bag it was shipped in was a bit too tight and could accidentally activate the buttons.
Henry Graves Jr., a New York banker, ordered the Supercomplication in 1925, aiming to surpass James Ward Packard, an Ohio-based auto manufacturer who had been buying complicated pieces from Patek Philippe for years. Graves paid $15,000 for the watch, which was delivered in 1933, and it is often credited with keeping the Swiss watchmaker in business during the Great Depression.
12.11.2014, 10:38
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