World’s most expensive watch fetches £24.2 million for charity
A stunning Patek Philippe watch designed especially for a charity auction has sold for an incredible £24.2 million, making it the most expensive timepiece in the world.
The Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime 6300A-010 was bought by a private telephone bidder at Only Watch, the biennial charity auction for research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy – a genetic condition that affects one in 3,000 male births.
Auctioneers at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva on Saturday, had only anticipated a sale of £1.9 million for the watch.
Move over, older record holder
The massive amount fetched (£24.2 million) overshadows the record £13.7 million paid for Oscar-winning actor Paul Newman’s Rolex Cosmograph Daytona in 2017. The actor was said to have worn his timepiece every day for 15 years.
Like the surprise Patek auction, the Daytona had expected to sell for far less but the interest was hyped up as 700 people crammed into the auction room, with 43 countries joining the auction by phone.
The most complicated watch
The Grandmaster Chime was launched in 2014 and became part of the regular collection in 2016. An incredibly complex watch, it boasts 20 complications including a minute repeater, second time zone, grand and petite sonnerie and a four-digit year display.
Its double-face casein rose gold and black also has a guilloche pattern making it quite a piece of artwork, not to mention the golden opaline and black dials which have ‘The Only One’ inscribed on the alarm time dial.
It has four spring barrels and five chiming modes – two of which have patents; for an acoustic alarm that strikes the pre-selected time and a date repeater sounding the date on demand.
A grand amount
Fifty of the watches specially created for the Only Watch charity sale which included the record-breaker, raised £30.23million for research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
The auction was founded in 2005 by Luc Pettavino, the former chief executive of the Monaco Yacht Show. His son Paul was diagnosed with the disease and died aged 21, three years ago.
Other luxury watch brands that donated timepieces to be auctioned included Audemars Piguet, Louis Vuitton, Hublot and Richard Mille.
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