Henry Graves Pocket Watch 24 Complications/Million

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.

Swiss Watchmakers & Co,

Quick video of Swiss Watchmakers at work, this video was actually in their old smaller facility they've recently expanded and moved into the historic DuPont Building.

They offer luxury watch repairs at affordable prices.

They Repair Audemars, Hublot, Longines, Omega, Patek Philippe, Rolex, Tag-Heuer and many other brands.

IWC Let's you see the stars from your wrist!

This timepiece is a true work of art it took a great amount of time of research and development, 10 years to be exact.

This timepiece is actually customized to the owners specifications the client can choose the location of the night sky they want displayed and IWC makes it a reality,

This timepiece can show around 500-1000 stars which is an outstanding amount.

The sky disc rotates in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction, depending on whether the chosen geographic location is in the northern or southern hemisphere.

The horizon can be identified by the yellow ellipse.

Then the red arrow points to solar time.

This timepiece can be made in either a red gold case, white gold case or platinum.

It has an outstanding 96 hours of power reserve and it is displayed at 4:30 on the timepiece.

At 9 o'clock you can see the tourbillon and small seconds as well which looks stunning.

Sidereal time is displayed at 12 o'clock, the timepiece uses anti-glare sapphire glass on both sides.

On the back it displays a Perpetual calendar with leap year and absolute day of the year

Celestial chart showing the horizon, ecliptic and celestial equator

Indication for day, night and twilight

Display for sunrise and sunset

Coordinates of chosen location
The timepiece case size is a cool 17.5 mm high and has a diameter of 46 mm

It uses a 94900 Calibre 

Which has over 500 components with 56 jewels

it produces 18'000 VPH

The tourbillon and astronomical module have been made beautifully on this movement.

IWC:

"The Portuguese Sidérale Scafusia is the most exclusive and most complicated mechanical watch ever created by IWC Schaffhausen."

Check out another night skywatch here Patek Philippe Celestial

Wear the Titanic on Your Wrist

Romain Jerome's marvelous watches with Titanic DNA. Below is The Octopus - Modus Operandi

On the back it features an octopus from the deep. Quite astounding. Named after the ocean giant in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, there is an urban legend that an octopus attacked the titanic.

The rust look is derived from melting the Titanic's corroded steel! Yes! THE Titanic!

The ship that sunk back in April of 1912. You'll be wearing that piece of history on your wrist. 

Rust has been the enemy of watchmakers, except for this beauty. With this watch, the rust is essential. It gives the watch so much character! It is quite a sight, I must say. 

The water resistance of this watch is greater than 1.0 MPa (10 atm), the equivalent of 100m, or 330 ft. It is water resistant to 888 ft. Amazing! Plus it can handle seawater, no worries.

It has thick watch crystals and you can read it under water when there is little light with its illuminated markers and dials.

The number 8 is reflected in the watch because of the number of legs. 8 rivets on each crown, 8 screws on the case, and 8 screws on the back.

 

Above is the Steampunk Black Watch by Romain Jerome. This watch is my favorite Romain Jerome I have seen so far, for sure.

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Win Rolex Fact

   In this quick blog I'll state 7 facts about Rolex.

1. Rolex has an output of 751,285 COSC movements since 2011

2. Their revenue is a massive 5.1 billion USD since 2010

3. Rolex employs about 2,800 people worldwide.

4. Rolex is one of the most counterfeited watches if not the most worldwide.

5. Rolex is one of the most renowned timepieces in the world, amazingly enough this popularity has given Rolex the saying "A Rolex watch is as good as cash"

6. Rolex produced the first waterproof watch in 1926. It was a Oyster model.

They also made the first watch with the first automatic changing date in 1945 it was a Datejust model. They also made the first wristwatch with two time zones a GMT model.

7. Rolex uses a different Steel from other watch brands they use a 907L steel. Which gives Rolex steel watches a better look and makes them more resistant.

History in The Making

Today I'll be going over the history of Vacheron Constantin.

Vacheron Constantin is one of the oldest watch manufacturers being founded in 1755 by Jean-Marc Vacheron.

Today Vecheron Constanting is part of the Richmont Group.

Vacheron Constantin has a small employee scale compared to that of Rolex, it only employs about 400 people world wide.

Vacheron Constantin made their first complication in 1770, 9 years after the first engine turned dial was invented by this marvelous company.

The name Vacheron Constantin came to be in around 1819 when then owner Jaques-Barthèlemy realized he needed help running the growing company. François Constantin became his assosiate and tats how Vacheron & Constantin came to have its name.

The watchmaking company has a motto and it states "Do better if possible and that is always possible".

In 2003 Vacheron Constantin introduced a new sports line called Overseas, and a collection called Egérie, the first to include watches for women.

In 2004 Vacheron Constantin opened its new headquarters and manufacture in Plab-les-Ouates, Geneva.

The Richmont Group named Juan Carlos Torres as the CEO of the company in October 2005. Vacheron Constantin is considered to be company that was able to create one of the most complicated wristwatches in the world entitled Tour de I'lle. It was created in 2005 to mark the anniversary of 250 years of Vacheron Constantin. The watch includes 834 parts and 16 horological complications. It was only available through the Vacheron Constantin shop in Geneva, Switzerland and sold for more than $1 million.

In 2007 Vacheron Constantin introduced the Metiers d'Art 'Les Masques' collection of timepieces featuring miniature reproductions of primitive art masks. The company selected twelve masks from a private museum collection and reproduced the masks on a small scale. The miniaturized masks are featured in the dial center of every watch from the 'Les Masques' collection.

See More of the Metiers d'Art 'Les Masques    More of Metier d'Art collection

Vacheron Consantin sells about 20,000 timepieces a year today.

Top 10 Most Beautiful Watches

Top 10 Most Beautiful Watches

#10 Harry Winston Opus 11

The Opus 11 includes 155 jewels and 566 components.
The center hour circle displays the hour with 24 placards that revolve and rotate on a complicated system of gears attached on an epicycloidal gear-train.
Click here to read more about the Opus 11

#9 Breguet Grande Complication Tourbillon 5317

#8 Jaeger-LeCoultre è Duomètre à Sphérotourbillon

Click here to read more about this JLC

#7 Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Unique Travel 

Click here to read more

#5 Rotonde de Cartier Astrocalendaire

Click here to read more about this Astrocalendaire

#4 Ulysse Nardin Moonstruck

#3 Patek Philippe Ref 6102 Grand Complications 

 

Patek Philippe knows what they are doing! This distinguished Grand Complication lives up to its name, coming in at number 2. Click here to read more

#2 A. Lange & Söhne Perpetual Calendar Terraluna


The Terraluna comes in a case choice of rose gold or white gold, both with a solid silver dial.
It displays minutes, hours, seconds, and a leap year indicator positioned accordingly.

The movement (above) is pure beauty at its finest.

Click here to read more about this Perpetual Calendar

#1 Van Cleef & Arpels' Midnight Planetarium Watch:

It is now possible to wear the night sky on your wrist.

The dial displays Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn with a rose cold casing. 

The month, days, and a red marker for your special day, are all displayed along the bezel.

This piece of arm candy is perfection what with its gems for the corresponding planets.

It is true to the actual planet's revolution around the sun.

This extraordinary time piece includes the gems: 

Serpentine for Mercury

Chloromelanite for Venus

Turquoise for Earth

Red Jasper for Mars

Blue Agate for Jupiter

Sugilite for Saturn
Click here to read more about it

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