The Most Expensive Watches in the World

There is no single, permanent answer to which watch is the most expensive, because the record is set in different ways. It helps to separate three categories before looking at individual pieces.

• Auction records. A watch sold publicly, with a hammer price that anyone can verify. These are usually unique or historically significant mechanical watches.
• Jewellery watches. Pieces whose value comes mostly from the diamonds and coloured stones set into the case, dial and bracelet. Their figures are often reported valuations rather than confirmed sales.
• Private commissions. One-off watches made for a single client, where the price is rarely disclosed.

When you read a headline claiming a particular watch is the world's most expensive, it is worth asking which of these it refers to. An auction result reflects what a collector actually paid on a given day. A jewellery valuation reflects the worth of the materials and craftsmanship. A private commission may never be confirmed at all.

What unites every watch at this level is that the price has little to do with telling the time. It is driven by mechanical complexity, rarity, the materials used and, in many cases, the story attached to the watch. Understanding those drivers is more useful than memorising a list, because the same forces shape the value of a fine watch at every price point, including the kind of piece you might give for a milestone birthday or anniversary.

The best-documented contenders are mechanical watches sold at the major auction houses, and a handful of names come up again and again.

Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime in steel. Patek Philippe, founded in Geneva, holds many of the highest auction results in watchmaking. Its Grandmaster Chime is a double-faced wristwatch with a reversible case and a long list of complications, including a grande and petite sonnerie and a minute repeater. Patek normally makes it in precious metal; a unique stainless steel version was created for the Only Watch charity auction, and its sale set a record for any watch sold at auction. The steel case matters: Patek rarely uses steel for its grandest complications, which made the piece doubly rare.

The Henry Graves Supercomplication. This gold pocket watch was made by Patek Philippe for the American banker Henry Graves Jr. and carries more than twenty complications, all of them calculated without computers. For decades it was regarded as the most complicated watch ever made by hand, and it has achieved one of the highest prices ever paid for a timepiece.

Paul Newman's own Rolex Daytona. Certain Daytona dials became known as Paul Newman dials because the actor wore one. His personal watch, a gift from his wife Joanne Woodward and engraved on the caseback, became one of the most valuable wristwatches ever sold. It shows how provenance alone can multiply the value of a model that, in other examples, is far more accessible.

These results sit in the tens of millions of US dollars, a level reached by a very small number of watches. They are outliers, but they illustrate exactly what collectors prize most.

A second route to the top of the list has nothing to do with gears. Jewellery houses have produced watches in which the timekeeping element is almost secondary to the stones.

The best-known example is the Graff Hallucination, a bracelet watch set with a large number of coloured diamonds in a range of cuts and hues, with a small quartz movement at its centre. It is widely reported to be valued at tens of millions of US dollars, which would place it above any auction result. The important word is reported: the figure is a valuation rather than a public sale price, so it is not directly comparable with a hammer price.

Watches like this are valued much as you would value a major piece of high jewellery:

• The stones. Size, colour, clarity and cut of each diamond, and above all the rarity of coloured diamonds.
• The setting. Hours of skilled work to set hundreds of stones securely while letting the bracelet move comfortably on the wrist.
• The design. How the stones are composed into a single coherent piece rather than simply scattered across a case.

For gift buyers, the lesson is that a watch can be a piece of jewellery first. Many great jewellery houses make dress watches that sit somewhere between the two worlds, and the same thinking that guides a choice of fine jewellery applies: the quality of the stones and the setting matters more than their number. The same principle explains the prices at the very top of other luxury categories, as you will see in our look at the most expensive bags in the world.

In mechanical watchmaking, a complication is any function beyond hours, minutes and seconds. The most expensive mechanical watches combine several of the most difficult ones, each of which takes years of training to assemble and adjust by hand.

• Minute repeater. Chimes the time on demand using tiny hammers and gongs. Tuning the sound so that it is clear and pleasant is regarded as one of the hardest skills in the craft.
• Grande and petite sonnerie. Strikes the hours, and in the grande version the quarters too, automatically as time passes, like a miniature clock tower.
• Perpetual calendar. Displays the date, day and month and accounts for months of different lengths and leap years without manual correction for a very long time.
• Tourbillon. A rotating cage carrying the escapement, originally devised to counter the effect of gravity on pocket watches. Today it is prized as much for its visible craftsmanship as its function.
• Chronograph and split-seconds chronograph. A stopwatch function; the split-seconds version times two events at once and is notoriously difficult to make.

A watch combining several of these is called a grand complication. Very few are made each year, and each one is assembled by a small number of master watchmakers. That scarcity of skill, more than the gold or platinum of the case, is why prices climb so steeply. Even simpler mechanical watches from respected houses reward the same appreciation: a beautifully finished movement visible through a sapphire caseback is a quiet pleasure the wearer enjoys for years.

Two watches of the same model can differ enormously in value. At auction, three factors explain most of the difference.

Provenance. Who owned the watch, and can it be proven. A piece worn by a famous figure, made for a notable collector or tied to a historic event carries a story that collectors pay for. Documentation such as original papers, receipts and letters strengthens that story.

Rarity. Unique pieces, prototypes, unusual dial variants and watches made in a metal the house rarely uses attract the most competition. The steel Grandmaster Chime is a clear example of rarity created by material.

Condition and originality. Collectors prefer watches that have not been over-polished and that retain their original dial, hands and parts. A watch that has been heavily restored can be worth considerably less than one with honest signs of age.

This is also why authenticity is central at every level of the market. Counterfeits, watches assembled from mismatched parts and replaced dials all exist. Before buying any pre-owned high-end watch, it is worth understanding how experts verify serial numbers, movements and documentation; our guide on how to authenticate designer pieces covers the principles. For a gift, the safest path is a watch with a clear and traceable history, bought from a source you can question in detail.

There is no reliable public record of the single most expensive watch in South Africa, because high-value pieces here tend to change hands privately and are rarely disclosed. What can be said is that the same Swiss houses that dominate international auctions are owned and worn by South African collectors, and that local prices are shaped by a few specific factors.

What drives local prices

1. The exchange rate. Most fine watches are priced in Swiss francs, euros or US dollars, so the rand price moves with the currency.
2. Import costs. Duties and taxes on luxury goods add to the final figure.
3. Demand for particular models. Some steel sports watches are scarce worldwide, and pre-owned examples can trade above their original price.
4. Materials and complications. Moving from steel to gold, or from a simple automatic to a chronograph or perpetual calendar, raises the price substantially.

Planning a budget

As a broad guide, mechanical watches from established Swiss houses generally start in the tens of thousands of rand, and precious-metal or complicated pieces can reach far higher. Rather than starting from a figure, start from the recipient: their wrist size, whether they prefer a dress or sports watch, and how often they will wear it. Allow for regular servicing over the life of a mechanical watch, which keeps it accurate and protects its value.

If you would like help narrowing down a watch at a particular budget, tell us what you have in mind and we will come back with options. You can also browse our watches page for guidance by style.

Very few people will ever buy a watch that rivals the auction records, but the qualities that make those watches valuable are exactly the ones worth looking for in a meaningful gift.

• Choose a respected maker. Houses with long watchmaking traditions build movements meant to be serviced and passed on. Our guide to luxury brands explains how the major houses differ.
• Favour craftsmanship over decoration. A well-finished movement or a precisely made dial will age better than a busy design.
• Think about the story. Provenance made Paul Newman's Daytona famous. A watch given for a wedding, a fortieth birthday or a retirement gains its own provenance, especially with a discreet engraving on the caseback.
• Get the fit right. Case diameter, thickness and lug width decide whether a watch looks right on a particular wrist. A slim dress watch suits a suit cuff; a sturdier sports watch suits weekends outdoors and a summer Christmas by the coast.
• Keep everything. Box, papers and service records protect value and confirm the watch's history for the next generation.

A fine watch remains one of the few gifts designed to be worn every day for decades. For ideas by recipient, see our edits of gifts for him and anniversary gifts, or read about another heirloom object in the most expensive pens in the world.