A Patek Philippe platinum minute repeater wristwatch made for Henry Graves, Jr., one of the world’s foremost Patek collectors, in 1927, will be auctioned off by Antiquorum in New York next week. This is first time this watch has been offered at auction, having been kept in a private collection for over 50 years. Born of an affluent banking family, Graves’ tremendous wealth and passion for watches allowed him to commission Patek Philippe to produce some of their finest and most technologically advanced timepieces. In 1932 he commissioned them to create the world’s most complicated pocket watch. Dubbed the Supercomplication, the yellow gold timepiece sold at Sotheby’s in 1999 for a record-breaking $11 million.

Like the Supercomplication, the Patek on offer at Antiquorum is engraved with Graves’ family coat of arms bearing the epithet, Esse Quam Videri, “To Be Rather than to Seem.” The 1927 platinum minute repeater is the second-most important Graves wristwatch ever offered at auction, following the Graves tortoise-shaped minute-repeater sold in an Antiquorum sale in 1989. The very fine and extremely rare cushion-shaped, minute-repeating, platinum wristwatch is estimated at $250,000 – $350,000, but could well fetch significantly more due to the unique provenance as Graves pieces and remain something of a holy grail for collectors.

[Anqituorum]