The most expensive pocket watch sold at auction is the Henry Graves Jr Supercomplication, a gold, double-dialled watch crafted by hand between 1925 and 1932 by Patek Philippe of Switzerland. On 11 November 2014, the watch was sold for 23,237,000 Swiss Francs (£15,154,312; $24,073,532) at Sotheby’s in Geneva, Switzerland.
The watch measures 74 mm (2.91 in) in diameter (the same width as a typical smartphone) and is 37 mm (1.45 in) thick, including the domed glass covers on the front and rear faces. Despite its relatively compact size, it weighs 536 grams (1 lb 2.9 oz), which gives an idea of how densely packed the internal mechanisms are. It was sold in its original tulipwood box, inlaid with a mother-of-pearl panel featuring the arms of Henry Graves Jr (1868–1953) – the American banker who commissioned the piece in 1925.
The name of the piece is a reference to Graves’ desire to have the most “complicated” watch in the world. (In horogical terminology, a “complication” is any feature that a mechanical timepiece can perform in addition to telling the time. Common complications include calendars, phase-of-the-moon displays and stopwatch functions.)
The Supercomplication required three years of study in astronomy, mathematics and precision mechanics before a viable design could be finalized. The enormously elaborate mechanism uses 900 individual parts including 430 screws, 110 wheels, 120 various movable parts and 70 jeweled bearings. It took the artisans at Patek-Phillippe – assisted by several other prominent Swiss watchmakers acting as sub-contractors – more than five years to assemble the watch, finally delivering it to Graves on 19 Jan 1933.
The 24 “complications” of the watch include a star chart (calibrated to show the night sky over Graves’ Manhattan apartment on any given night) and a multi-year calendar that will be accurate until the year 2100, as well as various alarm and stopwatch functions. This number of complications remained unbeaten until 1989, when Patek-Philippe released the 33-complication “Calibre 89”. It remains, however, the most complicated watch to have been made without the assistance of computers.
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History of Auctioneering
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The most expensive football (soccer) shirt sold at auction is £7,142,500 ($8,958,124) and was achieved by Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ shirt worn at the 1986 World Cup quarter-final, which was sold at Sotheby’s, London, UK, on 4 May 2022.
The shirt was worn by Diego Maradona as he helped Argentina to knock out England in the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup. The second goal that Maradona scored in that game was dubbed the ‘goal of the century’ in a FIFA poll in 2002. Maradona’s Argentina went on to knock out Belgium in the semi-finals and beat West Germany 3-2 in the final to lift the famous trophy.
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A painting by acclaimed landscape artist Joseph Turner, titled “Rome, from Mount Aventine”, set an auction record for the painter, selling for £30.3 million ($47.4 million) at Sotheby’s in London, UK, on 3 December 2014. The 92 cm x 125 cm (36 in x 50 in) canvas was based on Turner’s own drawings of the city he made in 1828. It was commissioned by the artist’s friend and patron, Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro.
Before this sale it had only changed hands once, in 1878, when the Fifth Earl of Rosebery bought it from Munro’s collection on his death.
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The highest price ever paid for a coin collection is $44,900,000 (£31,800,000) for the Eliasberg Collection sold over three auctions in 1982, 1996 and 1997 at Bowers and Merena Galleries, New Hampshire, USA. From the 1930s until 1950 Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. (1896-1976), a leading Baltimore banker and financier, attempted and accomplished what had never been tried before – to collect an example of each and every major United States coin variety from the 1793 half cent to the 1933 double eagle.
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The most amount of money paid for a mobile (cell) phone number is 10 million QAR (then £1.46 million; $2.75 million), by an anonymous Qatari bidder for the number 666-6666 during a charity auction hosted by Qatar Telecom in Doha, Qatar on 23 May 2006. QAR = Qatari Riyal
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The “Pizza Royale 2007”, created by Domenico Crolla (UK/Italy) for the premiere of Casino Royale (2007), was auctioned off for charity on eBay to an Italian lawyer for a record £2,150 (US$3,321. The toppings, inspired by Ian Fleming’s sophisticated tastes, include: -Lobster marinated in Louis VIII cognac (worth £1,395 (US$2,154) a bottle!)-Beluga caviar scented with Bollinger Champagne-Fillet steak marinated in Scotch Whisky-Smoked salmon infused with vodka martini-Edible gold leaf-White Italian truffles The pizza normally retails for £750 (US$1,158) at Bella Napoli/Italmania in Glasgow, UK.
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A vivid Fancy Orange diamond sold for 32.6 million Swiss francs ($35.5 million, £22 million) at Christie’s International auction house in Geneva, Switzerland, on 12 November 2013. The diamond had previously been with the same anonymous owner for at least 30 years. The 14.82-carat pear-shaped stone’s price works out as $2.4 million per carat, which is a record for any coloured diamond at a public sale. This beautiful stone is also the largest known vivid Fancy Orange – orange-coloured diamonds being far rarer than their white, pink and yellow counterparts.
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Endpapers are the double-page-size sheets of paper that link the inside cover of a book with its interior pages. The sheets are often highly illustrated and might be used on a number of publications. Endpaper artwork consisting of 34 small drawings of Tintin and his dog Snowy drawn by their creator Hergé (Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi) and depicting scenes from some of duo’s best-known adventures fetched a price of 2.5 million euros ($3.4 million), including fees, when sold at the Artcurial auction in Paris on 25 May 2014. The artwork featured in the endpapers in various Tintin books published between 1937 and 1958.
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On 14 December 2011, a pearl necklace known as “La Peregrina” once owned by actress Elizabeth Taylor sold at Christie’s, New York, USA, for $11,842,500 (£7,601,630), more than four times the estimated price. The 50.6-carat necklace, which dates from the 16th century, was a present to Taylor from her then husband Richard Burton, who bought it in an auction in 1969 for $37,000 (£15,400).
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