Antiquorum to Bid High-Priced Patek Philippe

Rare high-priced Patek Philippe watches will be among about 300 other timekeeping creations to be sold at the following Antiquorum auction sale. The event will be organized on March 28 at new headquarters of the auction house located on Madison Avenue, New York City. The Antiquorum's Collectors' Wristwatches, Pocket Watches and Clocks sale will take place after viewings in Beverly Hills, Calif., New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

Three exclusive Patek Philippe watches will be auctioned - Patek Philippe Ref. 5029, Ref. 5013, and Ref. 2499. All three timepieces are estimated to reach the amazing price range of about $ 400,000-$ 500,000.

The first highlight of the auction sale will become a Patek Philippe Ref. 5029. The watch is housed in rose gold case and equipped with a self-winding movement. It provides the complication of a minute-repeater. The watch was created as a part of a Patek Philippe limited edition of just ten pieces presented in 1997. The edition marked a memorable occasion in the brand's history - the opening of the Patek Philippe Geneva factory.

Patek Philippe Ref. 5013 is also an extremely rare timekeeping device powered by a self-winding movement. Its platinum case is tonneau-shaped. The watch offers a variety of functions - retrograde perpetual calendar, 48-hour power reserve, minute-repeater and moon phase indicator.

Patek Philippe Ref. 2499 will no doubt get in the center of the Antiquorum bidders' attention. The astronomic watch is presented in 18K yellow gold case. Among the functions provided by the timepiece there is a perpetual calendar, a round-button chronograph, a 30-minute register, and moon phase indicator.

The three above mentioned Patek Philippe watches are not the only valuable pieces developed by the company. Twenty most costly wristwatches sold at auction all belong to the Patek Philippe Company. Moreover, it is a Patek Philippe timepiece that holds the record for becoming the most complicated watch ever developed and most expensive watch ever sold. In December 1999 the brand's creation was hammered down for $ 11 million at Sotheby's auction house.

It was the Henry Graves super-complicated pocket watch developed back in 1933. The story of the most expensive timepiece ever sold is really amazing. The gold pocket watch offering 24 watchmaking complications appeared as the result of a continuous competition between Henry Graves Jr. , a financier from New York and James Ward Packard, a car engineer from Ohio. Both gentlemen dreamed of owning a watch with the greatest number of complicated functions. Packard commissioned the company to produce 13 complicated watches in the period of 1900 - 1927.

In his turn, Henry Graves Jr. asked the company to develop for him a series of complicated timepieces. The Patek Philippe watchmakers required 3 years to design and 5 years to produce the most complicated watch in the horology history. After the financier's death, the timepiece was sold to the Time Museum in Rockford in 1968 and then, 31 years later, was auctioned at Sotheby's. Its pre-sale price was in the range of $ 3-5 million. But the new owner of the complicated creation, an anonymous collector, acquired it for over $ 11 million.