Patek Philippe's $31 million Grandmaster Chime becomes most expensive watch ever sold

 
 With a hammer price of CHF31,000,000 (US$31.2 million) achieved at the Christie's Only Watch charity auction on Nov. 9, 2019, in Geneva, Patek Philippe's one-of-a-kind Ref. 6300A-010 Grandmaster Chime in stainless steel became the most expensive watch ever sold. 

 Expectations were already high when Lot 28 came to the block. Some speculated the Grandmaster Chime, despite its low estimate of CHF2,500,000 to CHF3,000,000, might unseat Paul Newman's personal Rolex Daytona, the previous record holder of most expensive wristwatch ever sold. That piece went for US$17,752,500 in a Phillips auction in New York two years ago.

But as a bidding war escalated in the final minutes of the sale, the room hushed as the price climbed above the US$24 million mark, overtaking Patek Philippe's 1933 Henry Graves Supercomplication pocket watch (which sold for a record-breaking US$24 million in a 2014 Sotheby's auction), and the audience realized history was being made. (Christie's didn't reveal the identity of the winning bidder.)

The Grandmaster Chime was crafted to celebrate Patek Philippe's 175th anniversary in 2014. As the brand's most complicated wristwatch ever built, the piece made some noise, quite literally. With multiple striking functions among its 20 complications on two dials, it was a testament to Patek Philippe's long-standing mastery in chiming complications.

The brand invested seven years and more than 100,000 hours to create the piece with Patek's first grande sonnerie (French for "grand strike"), which automatically strikes the hour and quarter hour every 15 minutes. It is paired with a petite sonnerie, which automatically chimes the hours and quarters without repeating the hours at each quarter, and a minute repeater which chimes hours, quarters, and minutes on demand.

In addition to these traditional striking functions, the watch is endowed with modern chiming complications, such as a patented alarm that chimes the alarm time like a minute repeater and a patented date repeater that chimes the date on demand.

The Grandmaster Chime holds six patents, including one for the mechanism that allows you to easily swivel and lock the engraved double-faced case, so you can choose which of the two dials you wish to show off.