Back in 1928, Patek Philippe produced a yellow gold tonneau wristwatch, with one of the earliest minute repeating movements, for a noted collector named Henry Graves. This week that timepiece, with an 1895 movement and 1927 case, sold at Sotheby’s for a record $2,994,500, making it the most expensive watch ever sold by the auction house.The watch, engraved with the Graves family coat-of-arms, had an estimate of $600,000-$800,000, which it more than tripled. It’s one of four minute repeating wristwatches created for Graves, although the only one Patek Philippe produced in gold. Another, cased in platinum, is in the Patek Philippe Museum.
