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Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime
Most expensive watch sold at auction
A one-off Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime sold at the Only Watch charity auction in Geneva in November 2019 for CHF 31 million, about $31 million.
The watch is the Patek Philippe reference 6300A-010, a unique piece in a stainless steel case with a double-faced design. It is a Grandmaster Chime, the brand's most complicated line of wristwatches, which combines a minute repeater and other chiming functions with a perpetual calendar and many further complications. Patek made it for Only Watch 2019.
Only Watch is a biennial charity auction organised in Monaco, in which makers donate unique pieces and the proceeds go to research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The 2019 sale was held in Geneva on November 9, and the watch sold for CHF 31 million, far above its pre-sale estimate.
The result is widely reported to have beaten the previous auction record for a watch, set by Patek's Henry Graves Supercomplication in 2014. The price includes the buyer's premium, and the dollar figure depends on that day's exchange rate, so '$31 million' is approximate.
Records can be broken, so the title of most expensive watch sold at auction should be read as 'as of the sources consulted'.
The buyer was not named publicly in the sources consulted here, and the watch is the only one of its kind made in steel.