GravesWatch no. 198.385 was delivered by Patek Philippe in 1933 and held the title as the most complicated portable timekeeper in the world for the next 56 years. Comprising over 900 parts, its mechanism achieves 22 different representations of time, besides hours, minutes and seconds, through the unique frequency of the balance. Two additional winding and adjustment mechanisms bring the total number of complications to 24. This record sale also lifted the veil from the mysterious Henry Graves Jr, the man who had ordered the most complicated watch in the world and whose taste and discretion have since served as an example to Genevan watchmakers. Two views of the super-complicated watch ordered by him from Patek Philippe. On the left: among the 24 complications, the white enamelled dial includes a perpetual calendar with the phases of the moon, a split-second chronograph with minutes (on the right) and hours (on the left) counters, power reserve indicators for the springs of the striking mechanism (on the left) and movement (on the right), mean time in seconds, minutes and hours and alarm time. On the right: the silver rear dial indicates the seconds, minutes and hours of sidereal time, sunrise and sunset, the starlit northern sky for New York and the equation of time.
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