What are the Most Expensive Watches?

Have you ever been stumped over selecting a special gift for a special man? Did you ever consider springing for a $5Million dollar diamond and emerald studded watch? Beyonce, celebrity singer, did just that for her husband’s birthday this month, setting all the tongues wagging, some in envy, some in admiration, and some in dismay over the extravagance during these economical times. Not people to consider public sentiments, she gifted her husband with the Hublot “Big Bang”. Hublot is famous for its luxury watches, but the $5Million price tag is due more to the gem crusted amenities. It boasts 1,282 diamonds, including more than 100 carats of baguette diamonds, plus six square emerald cut gems. The enclosure is made of 18K white gold with an engraved Hublot seal. It’s the ultimate watch, a mixture of extravagance, luxury and bling. Jay-Z is a huge watch collector and enjoys flashing this one around. This isn’t the first time that the superstar has been generous in the gift giving department. Celebrating the birth of their first child, Blue Ivy Carter, Beyonce allegedly gave Jay a sapphire ring quoted at over $800,000, which is close enough to one million for most of us.

The newsmaking gift, which has been dubbed The $5 Million Watch by designer Hublot due to the price, boasts its famous 1282 diamonds in VVS G Color diamonds and was put on display at the BaselWorld show in early 2013. The Big Bang watch was said to be the most expensive watch exhibited at the elite show famous for luxury watches and timepieces.

There are expensive watches, and then there are really expensive watches. On the following list, we are not referring to a few thousand dollars spent on a watch. The following list is of elite watches that cost millions of dollars. There’s nothing relative about these prices. They’re expensive no matter who buys it for you. Speaking of purchasers, these watches are owned by private persons who prefer anonymity.

Expect to consider loads of diamonds. Expect complicated timepieces. Expect normal-looking watches that are simply very rare. Above all, expect watch envy.

In ascending order:

10. Patek Philippe reference 1591

Price tag: $2,263,964

This quite normal-looking watch sold at auction for well over $2 million. It immediately became the most expensive stainless-steel watch ever sold. If you are fortunate enough to inherit a Patek Philippe in stainless steel, take loving care of it. Patek Philippe watches in steel are much rarer than their gold siblings and bring incredibly high prices at auctions.

9. Patek Philippe reference 2499 First Series

Price tag: $2,280,000

Also a Patek Philippe, but rose gold rather than stainless steel. Clearly it is also prudent to care for rose gold watches by Patek Phillippe. There were only five pieces made in this limited edition 2499.

8. Parmigiani Fleurier Fibonacci Pocket Watch

Price tag: $2.4 million

The Parmigiani Fleurier pocket watch has a minute repeater with cathedral gongs chiming the time, and a perpetual calendar. It is encased in white gold, enamel figures and diamonds. The manufacture of this pocket watch takes two years.

7. Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4

Price tag: $2.7 million

Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4 Grande Sonnerie Westminster Carillon. It’s a mouthful to say, but note that this is the most complicated watch in the world, with 36 complications and is made of 1,483 individual components.

6.Cartier Secret watch with phoenix decor

Price tag: $2.755 million

Beautiful and ethereal, one-of-a-kind Cartier wristwatch shaped as a phoenix is created from 18-carat rhodium-plated white gold. It is set with emeralds, brilliantly cut diamonds and one pear-shaped diamond weighing 3.53 carats. More than 80 carats of diamonds cluster this timepiece.

5. Piaget Emperador Temple

Price tag: $3.3 million

The Piaget Emperador Temple is really, entirely, fully iced. It holds 481 brilliant-cut diamonds, 207 baguette-cut diamonds and an emerald-cut diamond on top of the case. The second part of the case, containing another watch with a tourbillon, has a dial of Polynesian mother-of-pearl with 162 brilliant-cut diamonds and 11 baguette-cut diamonds. The bracelet is set with 350 baguette-cut diamonds.

4. Louis Moinet Meteoris

Price tag: $4.6 million

OK, the Louis Moinet Meteoris is, in fact, a set of four tourbillon watches sold as a set. Each has a dial made of out-of-this-world materials: meteorite from Mars, the moon, an asteroid, and an ancient meteorite called “Rosetta Stone.” But that is not all you receive for your $4.6Million. You also get a complimentary planetarium showing the solar system.

3. Patek Philippe Calibre 89

Price tag: $6 million

In 1989, Patek Philippe created the Calibre 89 Pocket Watch for his company’s 150th anniversary. At that time, it was the world’s most complicated watch and weighed over two pounds. It has 1,728 components and took Patek Philippe five years of research and four years to make it. It also indicates the temperature.

2. Patek Philippe Supercomplication

Price tag: $11 million

In 2^nd place of the world’s most expensive watches, we have again Patek Philippe, a brand that is famous for many highly collectible watches sold for millions at auctions. The Supercomplication is a yellow-gold pocket watch created for banker Henry Graves Jr. in 1932. Graves had a competition with James Ward Packard of Packard car company for having the world’s most complicated watch. This Patek Philippe Supercomplication ensured Graves of winning this contest. Notably it was also Patek Phillippe who later created a watch with even more complications, Patek Philippe Caliber 89.

1. The 201-carat Chopard

Price tag: $25 million

The world’s most expensive watch, made of a 15-carat pink diamond, a 12-carat blue diamond and 11-carat white diamond. It is also encrusted with 163 carats of smaller diamonds for a total diamond weight of 201 carats. It is also made of white and yellow gold. The three heart shaped diamonds white, blue and pink, gorgeous gems that open when a hidden lever is pressed, revealing the clock face among all the sparkling jewels.

Curiosity inspires me to wonder fruitlessly about the identity of the affluent owner of this 201 carat Chopard watch. However, that is for only wondering, and never knowing. I congratulate her, nonetheless.

Raymond Lee Jewelers, leading jeweler and expert in fine jewelry in Boca Raton, Florida, has a showroom of the highest quality gems, watches and jewelry, both new and pre-owned. Patrons owe it to themselves to come in an browse the collections on display before the holiday shopping accelerates.

In today’s times one must exercise care and caution relative to anyone handling, repairing, cleaning or customizing fine jewels and heirloom pieces, all of which Raymond Lee Jewelers have been certified as having expertise for more than thirty years. Raymond Lee can customize heirloom pieces for your enjoyment, repair damaged items and can discuss your valuables with you confidentially with said expertise gleaned from decades of experience. The showroom also has designer accessories such as handbags and other high end accessories for your selection, both new and pre –owned.