In the 1920s New York banker Henry Graves Jr. commissioned Patek Philippe to create “the most complicated watch ever made”. Over roughly seven to eight years (1925–1932) a team of master watchmakers in Geneva hand-built an 18K-gold, double-dial pocket watch for him. Delivered on January 19, 1933, it packed an astonishing 24 separate complications (features) into a single timepiece. In its day the Supercomplication “redefined the possibilities of watchmaking and changed horology forever”. Patek Philippe notes that this watch “revolutionized watchmaking with 24 complications,” and remained the world’s most complex watch until it was finally surpassed by Patek’s Calibre 89 in 1989. (It still holds the record as the most complicated watch built without computer aid.)
By the 1930s the Supercomplication was a legend – later housed at Illinois’s Time Museum and fetching world-record prices at auction. Sotheby’s catalog lists 920 individual parts inside: 430 screws, 110 wheels, 120 levers and 70 jewels, weighing about 535 g (1 lb 3 oz). In late 1999 it sold at Sotheby’s New York for $11,002,500 (to Sheikh Saud al-Thani) and again in 2014 for CHF 23.2 million (US$24M). Such record-breaking provenance underscores its legacy. Today the Supercomplication is enshrined in Patek Philippe’s museum in Geneva – a peerless monument of haute horology that draws generations of collectors.
The 1920s Packard–Graves Rivalry
The story often told is that Graves’s commission was sparked by a friendly competition with Ohio automaker James Ward Packard, another wealthy American who had also been ordering complicated watches from Patek Philippe. By 1916 Packard had “edged in front” with a 16-complication Patek pocket watch, and in 1927 he received another Patek with 10 complications (a sky-chart of his Ohio hometown). According to the Sotheby’s 2014 catalog, Graves – ever the sportsman – then approached Patek secretly and asked them to build “the most complicated watch ever made”. In this narrative, the two collectors were in an “unofficial competition” to outdo each other in mechanical marvels.
However, modern research suggests that the Packard–Graves “rivalry” was largely a later promotional tale. Archival evidence shows their commissions overlapped but there’s no record of a direct personal feud. (As watch historian Alan Banbery candidly notes, the rivalry may have been “fabricated in the early 1990s as a publicity stunt”.) In any case, both men lived in the same gilded-age milieu of self-made industrial wealth and horological enthusiasm. Graves himself paid a staggering CHF 60,000 (about US$15,000 at the time) for the Supercomplication – roughly five times more than Packard’s earlier commissions – reflecting Graves’s determination to surpass any predecessor. On 19 January 1933 he indeed “emerged the winner,” taking delivery of the immense new watch with 24 functions (including a New York star-chart of the Milky Way above his Fifth Avenue apartment).
Architectural Complications Explained
The Supercomplication’s 24 functions can be viewed as a kind of mechanical architecture, each complication a structural element in the design. For example, one side of the watch carries a celestial sky chart – a rotating map of the stars over Manhattan calibrated to Graves’s apartment longitude. It also keeps sidereal time (star-based time), shows the equation of time (the difference between solar and clock time), and even plots sunrise/sunset times for New York. These astronomical features reflect the “geometry” of the heavens and required precise engraving by specialist dial-makers.
On the other dial are the more familiar perpetual calendar indications (date, day, month, leap year to 2100) and moon phases, all mechanically linked so the calendar automatically accounts for varying month lengths. The watch also includes a chronograph stopwatch – a split-seconds mechanism with both 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers – allowing it to time events. Its striking mechanisms are equally formidable: the Supercomplication features a full Westminster-carillon minute-repeater and grande/petite sonnerie, meaning it can chime the hours and quarters in Big Ben’s melody on demand. Even the alarm clock function has its own hammer and gong. (Sotheby’s notes there are in fact five striking hammers inside: four for the grande-sonnerie carillon and a fifth dedicated to the alarm.)
Other systems complete the ensemble. Dual power-reserve indicators display the remaining wind for the timekeeping train and the chiming train separately. A complex crown-winding and setting system manages 13 different “operational functions” on the case: winding the watch, selecting chiming modes (off, petite or grande sonnerie), setting the time, alarm, and calendar, etc.. Each slide and pusher on the case is like a door or window in a machine, giving access to a different inner module. Sotheby’s emphasize that every complication was custom-designed for this watch, rather than added onto a base movement. In other words, this watch’s caliber was a unique multi-layer construction built from the ground up to accommodate all 24 features seamlessly.
Astronomical/Timekeeping
Hours, minutes and seconds (mean solar time) plus sidereal time (star clock); equation of time; sunrise and sunset indicators calibrated for New York; and a rotating sky chart of the Manhattan night sky.
Calendar
Full perpetual calendar (date, day, month, year with leap year to 2100); a large aperture moon-phase display; and the star chart is effectively a 6th “calendar” showing constellations.
Chronograph
Center seconds chronograph hand with split-second capability, plus 30-minute and 12-hour sub-registers for elapsed time.
Chiming / Alarm
Westminster-minute repeater (playing Big Ben melody), grande sonnerie (automatic hour and quarter-hour strike), petite sonnerie (quarter strike only), and a built-in central alarm function – each with its own hammers and gongs.
Power & Settings
Two independent mainspring barrels (one for time, one for chiming) with up/down indicators; a three-position crown and side levers to wind and set time, calendar, and alarm; in total, the case houses 13 distinct winding/setting controls.
This highly “architectural” layout required extraordinary collaboration among Geneva’s master watchmakers. The result is a timepiece where “all complications … were seamlessly combined” into a single movement. Almost every cubic millimeter of the 74 mm case is utilized by gears and levers. Even practical details were ingeniously solved – for instance, the serial number is engraved on an inner plate visible through the slight gap between the dial and case, so that the mechanisms can be inspected without removing the dial.
In sum, the Henry Graves Supercomplication stands as a mechanical cathedral: horological decorations (engraved dials and cathedral gongs), structural load-bearing elements (chiming trains and gear wheels), and astronomical ornamentation (sky map) are all integrated into one unified work of art and engineering. As Sotheby’s observes, this bespoke calibre was “not a mere flight of fancy” but a pragmatic commission, and its execution “resulted in a watch that was not only the most complex in the world, but … of exceptional aesthetic beauty”.
Today, the Supercomplication’s fame endures. It remains the touchstone for collectors – indeed, its creation helped ensure Patek Philippe’s survival during hard times, and “the development of its 24 individual complications” paved the way for later mega-watches. Modern auctions have proven its legendary status: in November 2014 it set a new world auction record (CHF 23.2M). Henry Graves’s own motto, “Esse Quam Videri” (“to be, rather than to seem”), finds poignant expression here – beneath its opulent facade lies a masterpiece of unseen complexity. The Supercomplication truly is the “Godfather” of modern high-complication watches, a cornerstone of horological history.
Sources: Authoritative auction catalogs, horological histories, and Patek Philippe archives were used to compile these facts. All information is drawn from these professional references.
