admin – Swiss Watch Makers https://swisswatchland.com Professional Watch Repair Wed, 20 Jun 2018 01:26:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.7 https://swisswatchland.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-New-Swiss-Watchmakers-Logo-Watch-Repair-32x32.jpg admin – Swiss Watch Makers https://swisswatchland.com 32 32 Henry Graves Pocket Watch 24 Complications/Million https://swisswatchland.com/2014/11/14/henry-graves-pocket-watch-24-complications-million/ Fri, 14 Nov 2014 14:15:02 +0000 http://clickupmedia.com/EVHOMESTATION/?p=3061 This Patek Philippe pocket watch was made for Henry Graves a famous bank during the U.S’s economic turmoil.
Henry Graves was an ardent watch collector as well as a patron for Patek Philippe.
He had a tendency to compete with James Ward Packward an automobile manufacturer, they would always attempt to have the most complicated timepiece possible. In 1933 this bickering ended when Graves received a pocket watch that could not be outmatched, The super complication was commissioned in 1927 by Graves and of course delivered in 1933.

Henry Graves Spend 60,000 Swiss Francs on the timepiece about 15,000 USD at the time.
3 years went into designing the timepiece and 5 to manufacture.
There was only one of these glorious timepieces made, and its history goes a little like this.

  • It went to Henry Graves from 1933 until his death in 1953

 

  • The time then went to his heirs until it was sold in 1968 to The Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois.

 

  • In 1999 following the closure of the Rockford Time Museum it was sold to a member of the Qatari Royal Family for a record breaking $11,002,500, the transaction was made at Sotheby’s in New York.

 

  • In July 2014 it was announced that the timepiece would again be sold at Sotheby’s Geneva and on November 11 2014 the timepiece was again sold for a record shattering $24,000,000 by Auerl Bacs a known watch collector and auctioneer as well as the former head of watches at Christies, the timepiece most likely going to an unknown client of his.

The 24 Complications at a million each

The hours, minutes and seconds of sidereal time (3)
Sunset/Sunrise time
Equation of time
Calendar
Perpetual calendar
Day of the Month
Day of the Week
Month
Star Chart (Depicting the stars in New York by Grave’s home to the exact relative distance)
Moon Phase
Chronograph
Split second
30 minute recording
12 hour recording
The Chime
Grande sonnerie (Westminster chimes) with carillon
Petite sonnerie with carillon
Minute Repeater
Alarm
The going train up-down indication
The striking train up/down indication
The twin barrel differential winding
The three-way setting system
line
This makes this the most complicated timepiece ever created without computer assisted machinery.
With 940 components this timepiece truly deserves the title of super complication everything was hand made to perfection.
]]> Patek Philippe 5990/1 https://swisswatchland.com/2014/05/02/patek-philippe-5990-1/ Fri, 02 May 2014 14:47:22 +0000 https://swisswatchland.com/?p=3136 So it’s been a while since I last posted.
I apologize for that greatly on a side note the page has now had over a Ten thousand hits!
I would like to thank you all for coming to the page and reading my little bio’s/reviews on watches.
Alright so now lets dive into watches.
As many of you know Basel World 2014 showcases various new timepieces.
So I will be covering that, well recovering since I’m a tad late.
Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe released a new Nautilus timepiece that extends its long line of Nautilus collection at basel world 2014
Nautilus Travel Time Chronograph
A wonderful addition to the Nautilus Family
The Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref 5990/1
features dual time on the timepiece
Now the last time I’d seen a Nautilus up close was at
Swiss Watchmakers & Co they were working on one while I was there and I was able to get some shots of it and wrote about it as well link is right here if you’d like to read
The one I saw at Swiss Watchmakers was beautiful, gold case black dial but it only featured Hour/Minutes/Date
The new Patek Philippe Nautilus features the same things as the old one but it also has Seconds, a Chronograph and Dual Time.
Now this is a significant amount of changes throughout the years. As some of you who have followed my posts for a while I love Patek Philippe because of how they can make the complex seem simplistic.
They have not failed to do so here.
The dial isn’t cluttered at all its perfectly placed, organized and easy to read.
I must commend Patek Philippe for doing this so well as many watches have these features but their dials are cluttered or the timepiece itself is huge, Patek Philippe have been able to keep the timepiece at a nice size and show the features beautifully.
Measurements
38.5 x 44
Crystals
Both are Sapphire
Case
 Stainless Steel
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