Henry Graves Jr. Patek Philippe Minute Repeater, Brand's First Wristwatch for sale

Graves commissioned three complicated pocket watches from the Geneva manufacture, among them was ultra-complicated 25 complication pocket watch which would eventually debut in 1933 as the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication On 16 June 1928, Henry Graves Jr walked into the headquarters of Patek Philippe in Geneva - located then, as now, at 41 rue du Rhône to collect another preceding Patek Philippe horological milestone - a gold tonneau Minute Repeater in the form of a wristwatch, the brand's first.

"This Henry Graves minute repeater bears the provenance of first known Patek Philippe minute repeating wristwatch belonging to the 20th century's most important collector." - LUXUO "He was American aristocracy, the son of the financier Henry Graves Sr., and became extremely rich through banking and investments in the railroad Among watch collectors he is a legendary figure" - Sabine Kegel, Christie's Head of Watches in Geneva.

Henry Graves gold Jr Patek Philippe Minute Repeater is up for auction at the Christie's Geneva November 11 sale This Henry Graves minute repeater bears the provenance of the first known Patek Philippe minute repeating wristwatch belonging to the 20th century's most important collector.

Thanks to impeccable auction records, the heritage of the Henry Graves Jr Patek Philippe Minute Repeater can be traced to three hands at the most - Graves Jr himself, the Fullerton family and the last anonymous owner who bought it from Sothebys' in 2012.

While another similar tonneau-shaped platinum minute repeater wristwatch exists, it remains part of the Patek Philippe Museum Collection, this means that Graves Jr's Patek Philippe Minute Repeater remains the sole publicly available exemplar of such a milestone model. . Source