A PATEK PHILIPPE gold watch billed as the most complicated in the world fetched a record US$21.3 million when it went under the hammer at an auction in Switzerland.

    The sale of the “Henry Graves Supercomplication,” a handcrafted timepiece named after its original owner, a New York banker who ordered it in 1925, is 36-mm thick, weighs 536 grams and has 900 parts.

    It had been expected to sell for US$15 million at the Sotheby’s jewel and watch auction in Geneva last week.

    But frenzied bidding pushed the price up higher, and the final amount paid was “a new world record,” Sotheby’s said.

    The winning bidder, who remained anonymous, will have to fork out a total of US$24 million, including the commission.

    It took Patek Philippe seven years to complete the watch, which has Graves’ name on the dial.

    Tim Bourne, Sotheby’s worldwide head of watches, said the sale confirmed the watch’s “superstar status.” Bourne called it an “icon of the 20th century, a masterpiece that elevates the discipline of watchmaking to art.”

    A watch industry expert said before the auction the timepiece was not just an immensely expensive accessory.

    “This is not a watch you can wear. It is a watch that symbolizes strength, power and money,” he said.

    The Patek Philippe displays not only the hour but also a plethora of other indicators: a perpetual calendar, the phases of the moon, sidereal time, indications for the time of sunset and sunrise, and the shifting night sky over Manhattan.

    Its Westminster chimes ring every 15 minutes.

    The watch has been up for sale once before, at a Sotheby’s auction in New York in December 1999, when the Time Museum in Rockford, in the U.S. state of Illinois, shut down and emptied its inventory. Then, the exquisite timepiece went for a mere US$11 million.

    Wealthy collectors from around the world have descended on Geneva for four auction-packed days at Sotheby’s and rival house Christie’s.

    Christie’s kicked off the bidding frenzy Nov. 9 with a special auction to mark 175 years of Patek Philippe watches, which saw 100 wrist and pocket watches sold for a total of US$19.7 million.

    That was double the original estimate, and set nine world records in the process, said Christie’s. (SD-Agencies)