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While browsing yesterday's New York Times Book Review, the name J. W. Packard suddenly popped out from a page and this isn't something that happens very often. To anyone who has read much about the early years of Packard, that J.W. was an avid designer and collector of elaborate pocket watches is no surprise - the story of his Patek Philippe which took 5 years to build is reasonably well known. The book being reviewed was about the competition between J. W. and his rival in this competition, Henry Graves, for the most exquisitely complicated mechanical timepiece. Here's hoping the NYTimes doesn't take exception to posting this copyrighted image.

A GRAND COMPLICATION
A Race to Build the World's Most Legendary Watch
by Stacy Perman
Atria Books, 343 pages, $26

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James Ward Packard was an enthusiastic collector of some of the finest watches money could buy and ordered special watches from the top manufactures in Switzerland. Here is one sold at auction in 2011 for $1.76 million:

VACHERON CONSTANTIN. AN EXCEPTIONAL, MONUMENTAL AND HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT 20K GOLD OPENFACE TWO-TRAIN TRIP 7 1/2 MINUTE REPEATING GRANDE AND PETITE SONNERIE CHRONOGRAPH CLOCKWATCH

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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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I had a good friend from Warren Ohio. He was given the task of cleaning and adjusting the clocks in the Packard homestead. A niece still lived there till her death. My friend said some of the clocks were very old and had hand-carved wooden gears.

Thinking that this new book might provide an interesting sidebar into J. W. Packard and might make good reading on my upcoming European cruise, I picked up a copy today at Barnes & Noble. Unless someone beats me to it I'll give a brief review when I've read it.

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I got to see this watch when it came to one of our fine jeweler s many years ago. We had a PNT activity to view it. There was a nice write up about the watch in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and that is how we knew it was to be in town.

EDIT: I found the information. Still not organized, but a filing cabinet does help.

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Well, I've started the book, about half-way thru. The author is obviously not an automobile historian and there are a few (forgivable?) errors about such things as the origins of the Liberty engine, and the automatic spark advance and driveline of the first Packards, but it's proving to be an interesting read. While the thrust is about the timepieces, there is some new (to me anyway) information about the time period between when J.W. graduated Lehigh, his first employment and the beginning of his career in Brooklyn and New York and when he returned to Warren to form his electric business.

Certainly not a book for just a general Packard enthusiast, but for those interested in the formative years of J.W's career and the beginnings of the Packard Electric ventures, I think some will find it quite worthwhile.