ONE OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS WATCH COLLECTIONS:HENRY GRAVES JR.’s FIRST EVER MINUTE REPEATING WRISTWATCH BY PATEK PHILIPPE and…. THE MOST VALUABLE ESTIMATED WATCH AT CHRISTIE’S: THE ONLY KNOWN GOBBI RETAILED PATEK PHILIPPE REF. 2523WITH TRANSLUCENT BLUE ENAMEL DIAL

Worldwide – Christie’s fall watch auctions in Geneva on 11 November and Hong Kong on 27 November will each offer a phenomenal landmark of watchmaking by Patek Philippe. These two timepieces, respectively extraordinary in their very different ways, will stir the international watch market as well as the hearts of the world’s greatest collectors and connoisseurs.

Christie’s will present Henry Graves Jr.’s (1868-1953) unique yellow gold tonneau minute repeating wristwatch of 1927, the first and earliest wristwatch in his outstanding collection of approximately 30 watches by the prestigious Swiss manufacturer Patek Philippe, it is also Patek Philippe’s earliest known minute repeating wristwatch. Specially commissioned and delivered in 1928, it is unanimously considered to be the prime piece among the very earliest recorded Patek Philippe minute repeater wristwatches. Its importance in the history of watchmaking alongside its unmatched provenance place it firmly as one of the most significant wristwatches in the world.

Only discovered as recently as 2012 in the estate of Graves’s grandson, Reginald H. Fullerton Jr., the watch has only ever had one other owner since it left the family. Manufactured at a time when minute repeater wristwatches were almost unheard of, it was specially made for Graves and engraved with the Graves coat of arms. Adding

a further layer of fascination is the knowledge that this watch is the first minute repeating watch that Henry Graves Jr. ever bought and that he personally collected it in June 1928 from Patek Philippe in Geneva.