The 11 Most Expensive Watches Ever Sold at Auction

A nice car, a large home, an expensive watch—they’re all status symbols. But some folks will break the bank to buy a rare timepiece.

These are the most expensive watches ever sold at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and elsewhere. You’ll see that Geneva-based Patek Philippe dominates the list.

1 The Henry Graves “supercomplication,” also by Patek Philippe, sold for $11 million at Sotheby’s in December 1999. It’s the most complicated watch ever created.

2 This Patek Philippe 18-carat gold perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch with moon phases and a tonneau-shaped case sold for $5.7 million at Christie’s in May 2010.

3 The Yellow Gold Calibre 89, a set of 4 pocket watches made by Patek Philippe in 1989, sold for just over $5 million at Antiquorum in Geneva in 2009. Fifty-six years after Patek Philippe made the Graves Supercomplication, it broke its own record for complications by using advanced computer technology. In 1989, to celebrate its 150th anniversary, Patek Philippe made four commemorative watches—in platinum, yellow, pink, and white gold—that offered 33 complications. Known as the Calibre 89 series, the keyless, three-barrel, double-dial pocket watches contain 1,728 parts and took nine years to make. Among their complications are astronomical and astrological functions, the time of sunrise and sunset, and a perpetual calendar that accounts for leap years for four centuries.
The four watches were originally sold to collectors, reportedly for prices approaching $4 million each. When Antiquorum in Geneva sold the yellow gold Calibre 89

4 This 1949 Patek Philippe stainless steel perpetual calendar wristwatch with Arabic numerals sold for $4.1 million at Christie’s in May 2008.

5 This 1928 Patek Philippe 18-carat, white gold, cushion-shaped, single button chronograph wristwatch sold for $3.6 million at Christie’s in May 2011.

6 This 1954 Patek Philippe platinum perpetual calendar wristwatch, with sweep centre seconds and a moon phase dial, sold for $3.1 million at Christie’s in May 2008.

#7 This 1942 Patek Philippe calendar wristwatch, which shows the moon phases, sold for $2.77 million at Christie’s in November 2009.

8 A Patek Philippe 18-carat pink gold wristwatch with a blue enamel dial from 1953 sold for $2.704 million at Christie’s in November 2010.

9 This Patek Philippe pink gold, perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch sold for $2.28 million at Christie’s in May 2007.

10 A 1944 stainless steel, water-resistant perpetual calendar Patek Philippe wristwatch sold for $2.26 million to a private Swiss museum at Christie’s in November 2007.

11 The Henry Graves Jr. “Grande Complication,” an 18-carat watch from 1926, sold for $1.98 million at Christie’s in November 2005.

BONUS: It’s not a typical watch, but this Duc D’Orleans Sympathique clock with a removable pocket watch sold for $5.77 million at Sotheby’s in December 2012.

More Expensive Watches Sold at Auction

: Mudge Green Clock Sale price: $1,240,000 Sale date: Oct. 13-15, 2004This clock made by Thomas Mudge was sold by Sotheby’s in October 2004 as part of the “Masterpieces of the Time Museum, Part IV” auction in New York. It is an early and important marine timekeeper with a constant force escapement, and took three years to craft from 1776 to 1779.

: Pink Gold Wristwatch Sale price: $1,413,263 Sale date: Nov. 16, 2008This exceptional and very rare pink gold Patek Philippe perpetual calendar wristwatch, made in 1951, features moon phases and a tachometer. Sotheby’s sold it in November 2008 in Geneva for more than $1.4 million.

: Sky Moon Tourbillon Wristwatch Sale price: $1,509,362 Sale date: Apr. 10, 2008First introduced in 2001, this contemporary double-dialed wristwatch is the most complicated that Patek Philippe has ever made. The company can produce only two of the watches per year because only one of its 180 staff watchmakers is capable of making it. The platinum watch features 12 complications, including minute repeater, tourbillon, retrograde date, sky chart, moon phases, and orbit. When this particular model was auctioned by Sotheby’s in April 2008 in Hong Kong, it fetched more than $1.5 million, a world record for any modern wristwatch sold at auction.

: Double-Faced Pocket Watch Sale price: $1,541,212 Sale date: May 16, 2006Custom-made by Patek Philippe in 1914 for George Thompson, an Anglo-American banker, entrepreneur, and owner of the St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press, this two-sided watch fetched $1.54 million when Sotheby’s sold it in May 2006. Among other features, the open-faced watch has a minute-repeating perpetual calendar, split-second chronograph, register, and keyless wind.

: Yellow Gold Wristwatch Sale price: $1,550,001 Sale date: Nov. 16, 2008This yellow gold Patek Philippe wristwatch features an automatic perpetual calendar with leap-year indication instead of moon phases. Sotheby’s auctioned it in November 2008 in Geneva for $1.55 million.

: Platinum Wristwatch Sale price: $1,548,840 Sale date: May 13, 2003Part of a collection called “69 Exceptional 20th Century Watches,” offered by Sotheby’s in May 2003, this rare platinum Patek Philippe wristwatch has a two-tone dial, simple calendar, and moon phases at 12 o’clock.

: The F.D.R Cartier Victory Clock Sale price: $1,609,000 Sale date: Dec. 4, 2007Built in 1938 for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this desk clock was made of silver onyx and nephrite, and features eight-day, five-time-zone timekeeping. When it was auctioned by Sotheby’s New York in December 2007, it set a world record for a Cartier clock.

: Single-Button Chronograph Sale price: $1,773,206 Sale date: Nov. 14, 2006Sotheby’s sold this extra-large Patek Philippe wristwatch for more than $1.77 million in November 2006 in Geneva. It features a single-button chronograph, register, stop slide, and tachometer.

: Tourbillon Pocket Watch Sale price: $1,779,080 Sale date: May 18, 2004Christie’s auctioned this platinum Patek Philippe open-face tourbillon pocket watch in May 2004 in Geneva for nearly $1.78 million. It contains a Guillaume balance, an invention by Swiss physicist Charles Edouard Guillaume that eliminated timekeeping errors due to temperature fluctuations. The watch took first place in the annual precision timing contest for 1930-1931 and received a “First Class Bulletin” from the Astronomical Observatory of Geneva. In 1931, it was delivered to Tiffany & Co. (TIF) in New York, where collector Henry Graves Jr. acquired it. The same timepiece fetched $453,500 when Sotheby’s auctioned it in 1999.

: Grogan Wristwatch Sale price: $1,945,040 Sale date: Nov. 13, 2006This gold Patek Philippe watch was made specifically for a left-handed wearer in 1925 and features a single-button, split-second chronograph. When Christie’s sold it in November 2006 in Geneva, it commanded the third-highest price ever paid for a wristwatch up to that time.

: Thomas Tompion Clock Sale price: $2,092,500 Sale date: Dec. 2, 1999One of the items included in Sotheby’s groundbreaking “Masterpieces of the Time Museum” sale in December 1999 was this quarter-hour chiming table clock made by the celebrated 17th century British clockmaker Thomas Tompion. It is one of only three known such clocks, made sometime around 1705, featuring a red tortoiseshell exterior, gilt-brass mount, and grande sonnerie chimes. Its 1999 sale set a world price record for both Tompion and English clocks.