$630,000
Platinum Minute-Repeater Sold to Henry Graves Jr. Patek Philippe, Genève, No. 198095, case No. 606433. Made for Henry Graves Jr. in 1927. Very fine and extremely rare, tonneau-shaped, minute-repeating, platinum wristwatch with a platinum Patek Philippe buckle. Accompanied by an Exract from the Archives. Three-body, solid, polished, concave lugs, case back engraved with coat-of-arms and the motto “Esse Quam Videri” (to be rather than to seem). Matte silver with applied platinum Breguet numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds dial. White gold spade hand. Cal. 11’’’, rhodium plated, first quality (ébauche Victorin Piguet), fausses cotes decoration, 29 jewels, wolf’s tooth winding, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance adjusted to 8 positions, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band. Dial, case and movement signed. Dim. 29 x 35 mm. Thickness 7 mm. Notes Henry Graves, Jr. (1868-1953) A prominent business man, sportsman and collector from New York. He was a great lover of watches and a passionate collector of Patek Philippe watches in particular. Graves ordered a number of watches to specification from Patek Philippe and, notably, commissioned them to manufacture the most complicated timepieces. After three years of preliminary studies, it took five years to complete that extraordinary pocket watch (1928-1933), which featured 24 complications; its movement contained over 800 p
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2009-03-05
