Re: J. W. Packard's Watches
Posted by Craig the Clipper Man On 2013/5/7 8:03:12
Packard became obsessed with having the finest watch in the world, but he faced competition from Henry Graves Jr., who had inherited an immense fortune from his father, a Wall Street financier.
Packard's interest in fine timepieces sprang from a lifelong fascination with all things mechanical. "As a boy, Ward tinkered with every clock in the family home, studying each intricate part until he understood how they worked together," Perman writes. "Reassembling them, he often improved their operation, a habit he did not abandon as an adult. . . . For an engineer dedicated to technical perfection, horology offered the ideal preoccupation."
Graves, by contrast, knew little about technology. But he had almost unlimited financial resources, and in the process of assembling a large collection of fine European art, he developed a keen ability to interpret market signals about quality. He valued technical wizardry not for its own sake, but because he understood that no timepiece that lacked it could be ranked among the world's best.
As Packard's collection matured, his attention turned to watches that had ever more elaborate and complex features, like perpetual calendars and celestial maps. Some included a tourbillon, a tiny contraption that slowly rotates the main mechanism, thus reducing the distorting effects of gravity. His was an appetite not easily satisfied: "The more watches he commissioned, the more obsessed he became."
The capstone of his collection was a grande complication, known simply as "the Packard," by the Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe. It was crafted over a five-year period to his detailed specifications and delivered to him in 1927.
This was the watch that Graves strove to outdo with his own "Supercomplication." His instructions to Patek Philippe were to produce " 'the most complicated watch,' one that was 'impossibly elaborate' and contained 'the maximum possible number of complications.' " (A "complication" is any feature other than the display of time.) Lest anyone doubt that this was a contest, pure and simple, he added: "And, in any case, certainly more complicated than that of Mr. Packard!"
Here are the specs on that watch:
Grande Complication Pocket Watch
Sale price: $1,980,200
Sale date: Nov. 14, 2005
Before Patek Philippe made the Supercomplication for Henry Graves Jr., the Swiss watchmaker created this 18-karat gold open-face pocket watch for the banker in 1926. It had 12 complications aside from timekeeping, including a dual-train repeating chime, perpetual calendar, split-second chronograph, phases of the moon, and a so-called "keyless" wind. When it was auctioned in November 2005 in Geneva, it was the most expensive watch that Christie's had ever sold at the time.
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Packard's interest in fine timepieces sprang from a lifelong fascination with all things mechanical. "As a boy, Ward tinkered with every clock in the family home, studying each intricate part until he understood how they worked together," Perman writes. "Reassembling them, he often improved their operation, a habit he did not abandon as an adult. . . . For an engineer dedicated to technical perfection, horology offered the ideal preoccupation."
Graves, by contrast, knew little about technology. But he had almost unlimited financial resources, and in the process of assembling a large collection of fine European art, he developed a keen ability to interpret market signals about quality. He valued technical wizardry not for its own sake, but because he understood that no timepiece that lacked it could be ranked among the world's best.
As Packard's collection matured, his attention turned to watches that had ever more elaborate and complex features, like perpetual calendars and celestial maps. Some included a tourbillon, a tiny contraption that slowly rotates the main mechanism, thus reducing the distorting effects of gravity. His was an appetite not easily satisfied: "The more watches he commissioned, the more obsessed he became."
The capstone of his collection was a grande complication, known simply as "the Packard," by the Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe. It was crafted over a five-year period to his detailed specifications and delivered to him in 1927.
This was the watch that Graves strove to outdo with his own "Supercomplication." His instructions to Patek Philippe were to produce " 'the most complicated watch,' one that was 'impossibly elaborate' and contained 'the maximum possible number of complications.' " (A "complication" is any feature other than the display of time.) Lest anyone doubt that this was a contest, pure and simple, he added: "And, in any case, certainly more complicated than that of Mr. Packard!"
Here are the specs on that watch:
Grande Complication Pocket Watch
Sale price: $1,980,200
Sale date: Nov. 14, 2005
Before Patek Philippe made the Supercomplication for Henry Graves Jr., the Swiss watchmaker created this 18-karat gold open-face pocket watch for the banker in 1926. It had 12 complications aside from timekeeping, including a dual-train repeating chime, perpetual calendar, split-second chronograph, phases of the moon, and a so-called "keyless" wind. When it was auctioned in November 2005 in Geneva, it was the most expensive watch that Christie's had ever sold at the time.
Attach file:
(21.73 KB)
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