The Henry Graves Supercomplication made by Patek Philippe in 1933 (c) Sotheby’s

Today was the big day at Sotheby’s, finally the world got to find out the price that the most complicated watch, entirely hand-made watch, will fetch.

Last time it was on the market, 15 years ago, it fetched $11 million, beating by far the $3-5 million estimate. This time, it was expected that it will go in excess of $16 million. Well, at CHF 23,237,000, which is roughly $24 million, it exceeded by far any estimates.

According to Hodinkee, the winning bid was placed by Aurel Bacs, probably in behalf of one of his clients.

This story has a rather tragic twist, as the client selling this outstanding Patek, Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani of Qatar, has passed away just a couple of days ago. He was only 48 years old, a well know person in the blue chip art collecting circles.

To find out more about this outstanding piece by visiting Sotheby’s dedicated page.