The Most Expensive Watches In The World: Top 1-35

World's Most Expensive Watches News, Reviews & Resources

• 5 of the world's most expensive watches - "What sort of watch might Parisian horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet make if he were alive today? Truthfully, the 'godfather of modern watchmaking' - who is credited with industrializing fine watchmaking and countless technological innovations - probably wouldn't be making watches at all. As a master of practical, innovative and beautiful problem-solving, he would more likely be making a killing in Silicon Valley."
• 12 Of The Greatest Missing Watches - "Paul Newman's Paul Newman, John Lennon's Patek Philippe, The Original Moonwatch, And A President's President have all disappeared."
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• 15 Most Expensive Watches Ever [2021 Edition] - "From the best in bling to the rarest limited edition luxury watches, we’ll take a look at the 15 most expensive watches ever sold, and only from the best watchmakers on the planet."
• Are these the most expensive watches ever sold? - The Telegraph.
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• $7.8 Million Patek Philippe Silk Road Watch Claims World Record - "Watch fans will recognise the watch as 'The Silk Road,' so dubbed for its depiction of the Eurasian landmass. It’s also the first of 11 Ref. 2523 models, and it’s one of only three with the Eurasian design. The watch has a cloisonné enamel dial. Two crowns are used on the watch - one to wind it and the other to control the city ring. The city ring allows the wearer to calculate the current time in 40 cities, all of which are listed on the watch’s circumference. Powering the watch is a Swiss 'time only' 12-ligne movement (cal. 12-400), which was personally modified by Louis Cottier, who invented the world time system."
• 17 expensive & ornate winners at this year's 'Watchmaking Oscars' 2015 - Business Insider.
• Are these the most expensive watches ever sold? - The Telegraph.
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• Breguet No. 1188 tourbillon chronometer - bought for almost CHF 2,150,000 (hammer price CHF 1,950,000) at the Antiquorum sale of October 20, 2002 in Geneva.
• How personalised watches became a cult collector’s item - "Stoned! A new Piaget customisation service revisits a glorious era in 1960s design."
• How the Cartier Crash Became The Most Important Vintage Watch of 2021 - "A new world-record auction price for the Crash is just the latest chapter in the history of this surreal Cartier."
• How The Rolex Day-Date Became A Million-Dollar Watch - "A guide to the quintessential power watch."
• How to Invest in the Skyrocketing Watch Market - "The watch world has never been hotter, with demand skyrocketing right as supply slows to a trickle. But if you know where to look - and who to talk to, and how to spot value in an ocean of excess - there's no better time than now to find an investment-grade grail."
• Investment-grade Rolex & Patek Philippe watches are bad news for the industry - "Trusting the market is normally good advice, but what if the free market damages the reputation of its most successful brands? That is the danger facing Rolex and Patek Philippe now that almost nobody is able buy their most popular watches and their authorised dealers are being pitched into ugly fights with some of their most loyal clients. Where will it all end? Robin Swithinbank analyses the forces that are sucking the joy out of luxury watches."
• Jack Nicklaus' iconic Rolex watch is being auctioned off - "You won't believe how much money it could be worth."
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• King Charles' Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Chronograph Is A Real Collector's Choice - "What's a watch fit for a king? As the newly ascended King Charles III has shown over the past few days of public mourning over the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, it might not always be the watch you expect. But for the new king, who's always been stylish, with a taste for the artisanal, the watch he's been wearing just makes sense."
• Luxury Investments Around the World Compared - infographic - "Do you enjoy the finer things in life? For many of the world’s wealthy individuals, acquiring luxury goods such as art, fine wine, and watches is a passion. Unlike traditional investments in financial assets, luxury goods can be difficult to value if one does not have an appreciation for their form. A rare painting, for example, does not generate cash flows, meaning its value is truly in the eye of the beholder. To gain some insight into the market for luxury goods, this infographic takes data from Knight Frank’s 2021 Wealth Report to compare the preferences of nine global regions."
• Luxury watch shortage drives growth of $20 billion secondhand market as start-ups rush to cash in - "A rush of companies are vying to become the eBay of high-end horology - including the storied online marketplace itself. Demand for high-end watches exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Big Four watch brands - Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille - are holding firm on the limited production runs that make their timepieces so rare. The result is an online boom in the business of buying, selling and flipping pre-owned and vintage watches and a growing number of start-ups competing to become the dominant digital marketplace."
• Marlon Brando’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ Rolex Sells for $1.95 Million - "The watch is notable for missing the 24-hour bezel that GMT-Master is known for—Brando is said to have popped it off on set of the movie - and inscribed with his name on the back. The piece was considered missing by Rolex collectors until it came up for auction at Phillips' Game Changers sale in New York held on December 10."
• Most expensive watches sold at auction - The Telegraph.
• No Listed price: - Nicolas G. Hayek of Breguet unveils its Marie-Antoinette Grande Complication pocket watch number 1160 in april 2008.
• Not Even the Rich Can Buy Fancy Watches - "If you’re in the market for a $25,000 Rolex, you better know a guy. And you better have $50,000."
• Parmigiani Fleurier’s La Rose CarrÉe Is A Once-In-A-Lifetime Watch For A 25th Anniversary - "Parmigiani Fleurier’s La Rose Carrée is one of those just-because-we-could masterpieces that come along once in awhile to demonstrate how the craft of watchmaking can be raised to the level of art. Every millimeter of the watch was touched by the hands of artisans at the top of their craft, including watchmakers, restorers, enamelers, engravers, chain makers, case makers and dial makers."
• Patek Philippe Becomes Most Expensive Wristwatch Ever Sold at Geneva Charity Auction - BloombergBusiness.
• Patek Philippe Reference 2499/100 Fetches $607,590 At Phillips Auction - "A Patek Philippe Reference 2499/100, 18k yellow gold perpetual calendar chronograph with moon phases, circa 1982, was the top lot at Phillips with Bacs & Russo Hong Kong Watch Auction: X, held Friday. It sold for $607,590, within estimates."
• Paul Newman Rolex Sells at Auction for Record $17.8 Million - The New York Times.
• Phillips Sets Four World Records At Its Biggest Asian Watch Auction Ever, Totaling Nearly $25 Million - "The vintage watch craze continues. Phillips just held its biggest watch auction ever in Asia, for a total of $24,650,748. The top four lots in the Hong Kong Watch Auction XII were Patek Philippes - no surprise there - but the next six pieces at the top of the sale were smaller or independent brands. There were no Rolexes in the top ten." The top lot was a Patek Philippe Ref. 2499 that sold for $1,981,838.
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• Phillips Sets World Record for $74.5 Million Watch Auction - "Led by Philippe Dufour, Phillips’s $74.5 Million Watch Auction Shattered Multiple World Records. Dufour's Grande et Petite Sonnerie was the headliner and set a record for the most expensive independent watch ever sold."
• Pocket watch from 1982 sells for record amount at auction - "Pocket watch inspired by the moon landing sells for record $4.5 million."
• Rolex & Cartier tipped for best investment watches in 2022 - "Rising demand and continuing scarcity will make Rolex and Cartier two of the hottest investment watch brands in 2022, according to secondary market specialist The RealReal. Next year will be building on one of the hottest growth periods in history for the luxury watch business, leading to extreme shortages at authorised dealers and soaring prices on the grey and pre-owned markets."
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• Rolex is a mere pretender to the Patek Philippe crown at watch auctions - "Rolex made such a splash in 2017 when a Paul Newman-owned Daytona sold for $17.5 million that the casual observer might think it has dominated the auction world’s top ranked sales ever since. Not so, observes Simon De Burton, who sees Patek Philippe firmly maintaining its reputation as the king of auction brands and a number of rising stars like Cartier, F. P. Journe and Philippe Dufour regularly grabbing the attention of expert collectors."
• Sotheby's New York Achieves a Personal Best With Sale of US$9.6m Patek Philippe - "The new-to-market chronograph came from a royal estate."
• The First Patek Philippe Tiffany Blue 170th Anniversary Nautilus Has Sold for a Staggering US$6.5 Million - "History has just been made at Phillips New York with the sale of the very first Patek Philippe Tiffany & Co. 5711/1A-018 Nautilus."
• The most incredible bejeweled watches at Paris Couture - The Telegraph.
• the psychology of why we collect watches - "Knowledge, kinship & 'celebrity vampirism' - the psychology of why we collect watches." We asked a clinical psychologist who specialises in compulsive behaviour to find out.
• The World's Most Expensive Watches - by Ariel Adams at Amazon.com. "The World's Most Expensive Watches presents some of the most extravagant, intricate, collectible, decadent, or just plain interesting modern-day timepieces that sit at the top of the price spectrum. Starting at a threshold price of about $200,000, it is a trip through the last decade or so of watches whose values soar incredibly to prices of $5 million dollars or more. Additionally, there is a selection of notable watches that yielded extremely high prices at auction - many of which are historically relevant."
• Who bought the Tiffany-Blue Patek 5711 at Phillips Auction for US$6.5 million? - "Watch collector Zach Lu - who has just obtained the ultimate un-obtainium watch - looks out on the horizon and spies pieces he can’t have. For instance, another Patek of the same hue, the previously unknown Tiffany-signed Patek Philippe Nautilus 5740 Unique Piece with a Tiffany-Blue dial, which broke the watch internet this past weekend. The owner? Bernard Arnault, the chairman and chief executive of LVMH."
• Why We Spend More For Luxury Watch Brands - "When consumers spend money on most luxury goods, they are, in fact, purchasing two things at once. First, they are purchasing a 'nice object' or service. That is the thing they are acquiring, and for it to be an authentic luxury, it has to be manufactured rather well, often with a refined design and using less-than-ordinary materials. But that alone doesn’t make anything a luxury good. The second thing consumers are purchasing when getting a luxury good is the brand name on the good. This is a more amorphous area of value but a real one nonetheless. When you buy a brand you are in fact purchasing an association with a concept, feeling, image, or status."
• World's Most Expensive Rolex Resurfaces Four Years After Breaking Records - "The most expensive Rolex ever sold has resurfaced in Los Angeles after disappearing from public view since being auctioned off for US$17 million in 2017. The Rolex Cosmograph 'Paul Newman Daytona' Ref 6239 that once belonged to actor Paul Newman and started one of the biggest trends in watch collecting has gone on show at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which opened in Los Angeles this week."
• World's most expensive watch sells for 31m Swiss francs (£24.2m) in charity auction - "A Patek Philippe watch has sold for a record 31m Swiss francs (£24.2m) at a charity auction hosted by Christie’s in Switzerland. It is by far the highest price ever paid for a wristwatch, and all of the proceeds will be donated to research into muscular dystrophy."
• Wrist full of dollars: the most expensive watches money can buy - The Telegraph.

Top 35 Most Expensive Watches in the World:

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• World's Most Expensive Watch: - Patek Philippe Henry Graves Super Complication Pocket Watch sold for US$24 million at Sotheby’s in Geneva on November 11, 2014, setting a new record price for any timepiece sold at auction.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #2: - Chopard 201 Carat Watch featuring 874 diamonds in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. The The watch's pricetag is US$25 million in early 2000 making it the most expensive watch in the world.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #3: - Patek Philippe Reference 1527 Wristwatch: US$5,708,833.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #4: - Breguet & Fils, Paris No. 2667 Precision Stop Watch. Sold at Christie's Auction in Geneva for US$4,682,165 on May 14, 2012.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #5: - Louis Moinet Meteoris Watch: US$4,599,487.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #6: - Vacheron Constantin Tour de I'lle Watch. Released in 2005 in a limited edition of 7 pieces to commemorate the manufacturer's 250th anniversary. The most complicated continually produced wristwatch with 16 complications and 834 individual parts. Price: US$3,950,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #7: - Patek Philippe Reference 2499, limited edition (only five pieces): US$3,655,757.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #8: - 1928 Patek Philippe 18k white gold cushion-shaped single-button chronograph sold for US$3,637,408 at Christie's Auctions in Geneva on May 16, 2011.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #9: - Piaget Emperador Temple Watch US$3.3 million.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #10: - Patek Philippe 1953 Model 2523 Heures Universelles Watch: US$2,899,373.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #11: - Cartier Secret Watch with Phoenix Decor. Price: US$2,755,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #12: - Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4 watch. The most complicated wrist watch ever made in the world: 36 complications, 1483 components, 99 jewels. Price: US$2,700,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #13: - Parmigiani Fleurier Fibonacci Pocket Watch: US$2.4 Million.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #14: - Patek Philippe Model 1591 (1944): US$$2,263,964.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #15: - Patek Philippe The Grogan (1925) Gold Chronograph Watch. One of the first watches made for a lefty. Price: US$1,945,040.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #16: - Vacheron Constantin Grand Complication, Movement No. 37555, Case No. 231922, pocket watch in 20-carat gold made for James Ward Packard in 1918 brought US$1,800,000 at Christie’s New York auction on June 15, 2011.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #17: - Patek Philippe Single Button Chronograph Watch: US$1,773,206.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #18: - Patek Philippe Pilot Watch, 1936 model. Sold for over US$1,710,690 at Christie’s in Geneva on May 11, 2009.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #19: - Richard Mille Sapphire Crystal Watch: RM 56 Felipe Massa Sapphire. Limited edition: 5 pieces. Price: US$1.7 million.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #20: - Blancpain Spécialités Tourbillon Diamants Watch. Features 735 diamond stones (20.14 carats) encrusted on a 18k white gold 3 piece case set and 29 added jewels placed on the automatic caliber 25A tourbillon movement. Price: US$1,342,700.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #21: - Vacheron Constantin Kalla Duchesse Métiers d'Art watch (reference: 81750/S01G-9198) 36 × 45 mm in 18K white gold set with 837 baguette-cut diamonds and 1 round-cut diamond, certified Hallmark of Geneva. Fully paved dial and bracelet, diamond-set crown. Vacheron Constantin Manufacture hand-wound mechanical movement 1400. Price: US$1,275,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #22: - Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon in yellow gold, Ref. 5002, sold for US$1.2 million at the Patrizzi & Co. auction in New York on October 7, 2009.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #23: - Chopard Super Ice Cube Watch. Price: US$1,130,260.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #24: - Hublot One Million $ Black Caviar Bang Watch. 550 diamonds are all over the watch, with a total of 34.5 carats. Won the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève prize for jewelery watch of the year 2009.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #25: - Ulysse Nardin Royal Blue Tourbillion watch. Has a platinum case and bracelet and is set with a total of 568 baguette-cut Top Wesselton diamonds (33.8 carats) and 234 baguette-cut royal blue sapphires (16.79 carats). Limited edition: 30 pieces. Price: US$1 million.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #26: - Jacob & Co. Crystal Tourbillon watch. The 18 carat white gold case of the Crystal Tourbillon is covered in 17.48 carats of baguette diamonds and has a transparent skeleton tourbillion dial. Price: US$900,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #27: - Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Grande Complication. Selfwinding watch with perpetual calendar indicating the day, the date, the week, the moon phases, the month and the leap years, minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph and small seconds at 9 o'clock. 950 platinum case, white classic dial, blue strap. Price: US$$780,600.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #28: - Breguet Classique 5349 Grande Complication. It contains more than 570 parts and has three patents to protect its 'superior precision and technological mastery'. Price: US$755,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #29: - Omega Constellation Baguette watch. 459 Top Wesselton diamonds, totaling just over 30 carats. There are 146 baguette and trapeze diamonds on the dial, completely covering the 18 carat white gold case. Price: US$$708,742.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #30: - Vacheron Constantin Malte regulator tourbillon high jewellery watch. Has 263 baguette-cut diamonds in the dial and 274 baguette-cut diamonds in the case. Price: US$700,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #31: - Richard Mille RM 27-01 Raphael Nadal. Limited edition of 50 timepieces. Weight: just 19 g. Price: US$690,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #32: - Greubel Forsey Quadruple Tourbillion. 531 parts are used for two separate double tourbillons. Price: US$690,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #33: - Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945 Jackpot Tourbillion. Jewels: 38. Power reserve: min. 96 hours. Price: US$625,000.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #34: - A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph 'Pour le Mérite'. Limited edition: 50 units. Price: US$515,947.
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• World's Most Expensive Watch #35: - Cabestan Winch Tourbillon Vertical watch. Limited series of 135 pieces. Price: US$400,000.
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• World’s most complicated watch - "To pay tribute to its 175th anniversary, Patek Philippe created a collection of limited-edition commemorative timepieces, and one of them stands out in particular: Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 5175. Price: US$2.6 million."