The incredible thing about watch collecting is that you don’t have to spend boatloads of money to get a first-rate watch on your wrist. In saying that, in the event that your pockets are basically as profound as the Mariana Trench, anything is possible.
With regards to the costliest watches on the planet, there are a couple of ways of piling up 1,000,000 or fifty, contingent upon your taste.
The Most Expensive Watches in the World, Ranked by What They Sold For
So, on the off chance that you’re hoping to construct an assortment of the world’s most costly watches, do you look for extraordinariness as a Patek Philippe ref. 1518 or Paul Newman Rolex Daytona ref. 6263 or is it ice you want?
From the best in bling to the most uncommon restricted release extravagance watches, we’ll investigate the 15 most costly watches in the world – the eleven that hold real auction records, and the four that have never been sold at all, and just from the best watchmakers on earth.
The eleven watches below are ranked by what they actually fetched at public auction, buyer’s premium included, with the house, the city and the date attached to each. Four more follow in a section of their own: famous, enormously valuable, and never sold. There is no price to rank those by, only a valuation or a shop tag, and a watch nobody has ever bought cannot outrank one that changed hands for real money. Figures are current as of September 2026.
1. Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010 – $31.19 Million
This novel tempered steel watch was made by Patek Philippe explicitly for the Only Watch 2019 foundation closeout in Geneva, a reason that raises assets for examination into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
The Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010 is a watchmaking masterpiece, with not one yet two dials and highlights 20 distinct entanglements. The Grandmaster Chime series was first presented by the brand in 2014 to check the 175th commemoration of Patek Philippe and to exhibit the brand’s specialized complexity and master craftsmanship.
Sold for $31.19 million (CHF 31,000,000) at Christie’s in Geneva on 9 November 2019, at the Only Watch charity auction. It is still the highest price ever paid for a wristwatch.
2. Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication – $23.98 Million
Respected by specialists and enthusiasts the same as the holy grail of present-day watchmaking, the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication is without equal.
Dispatched by the New York financier Henry Graves Jr., this pocket watch is etched from 18kt gold and flaunts 24 distinct entanglements.
The gigantic 74mm watch contains 920 individual parts, highlights two dials, and offers complexities including a perpetual calendar, periods of the moon, split-seconds chronograph, dawn and nightfall times, and a divine star diagram. In the event that that wasn’t sufficient, the pocket watch is likewise a brief repeater with Westminster tolls, as well as grande and unimposing sonnerie.
Sold for $23.98 million at Sotheby’s in Geneva on 11 November 2014, the highest price ever paid at auction for a pocket watch.
3. Rolex “Paul Newman” Daytona Ref. 6239 – $17.75 Million
The 2017 New York deal successfully brought forth the superheated Daytona market we actually see today. Newman’s responsibility for the watch was persuasive to such an extent that Rolex Daytona Ref. 6239 was known as the Paul Newman Rolex Daytona for quite a long time before this watch was sold.
Newman got the watch as a gift from his significant other, Joanne Woodward, which included the case back etching “Drive Carefully Me” to remind Newman to be protected as he sought after his enthusiasm for quick vehicles. Notwithstanding his notoriety and fortune, Paul Newman never wanted to wear 1,000,000 dollars grande confusion, rather picking a Rolex that was never viewed as a costly watch at the time that he wore it.
Sold for $17,752,500 at Phillips in New York on 26 October 2017. This was Newman’s own watch, and the sale that set off the Daytona market described above.
4. Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 in Stainless Steel – $11.14 Million
In Patek Philippe lore, the ref. 1518 is the stuff of confounded wristwatch dreams.
It was the primary perpetual calendar chronograph that the Geneva-based watchmaker at any point sequentially created, as far as possible back in 1941. Regardless of its degree of complexity, the watch just measures 35mm in width, a momentous specialized accomplishment by the brand.
Another standout component of the watch is the unimaginable equilibrium and evenness of the dial, which out of all of the over-the-top expensive watches on the planet is frequently alluded to as a dial that approaches wonderful extents.
Sold for $11.14 million at Phillips in Geneva on 12 November 2016. Only four are known in steel.
5. Patek Philippe Ref. 2523 Gobbi Milano “Heures Universelles” – $8.97 Million
The Patek Philippe ref. 2523 is a legendary watch, which features both specialized development and practically unmatched craftsmanship from the brand now is the right time.
Its surprising and marginally confounded-looking dial permits the wearer to give the current time in any city all over the planet, which was a mind-boggling step in the craft of watchmaking when Louis Cottier fostered the framework in the mid-’30s.
Highlighting a 35.5mm pink gold case with crowns on the two sides, the genuine delight is in the focal point of the dial where we see a clear blue finish circle. The name of the brand is printed at the top, while at the base we see the name of the Patek Philippe retailer in Milan at that point, Gobbi.
Sold for $8.97 million at Christie’s in Hong Kong on 23 November 2019.
6. Patek Philippe Ref. 2523 “Eurasia” – $7.68 Million
Highlighting a world timer confusion set utilizing the twin-crowns, the 12-400HU type inside the watch was planned by unbelievable watchmaker Louis Cottier, and became something of a layout for worldtimer watches pushing ahead.
It can show the time all over the planet utilizing a ring that shows 41 urban communities from New York to Adelaide as they show up around the world. At the point when this watch was sold in May 2021, it turned into the most over the top at point paid for a yellow gold wristwatch.
Sold for $7.68 million at Phillips in Geneva on 8 May 2021.
7. Patek Philippe Ref. 5016A-010 – $7.26 Million
For the 2015 Only Watch noble cause sell-off, Patek Philippe delivered a damn extraordinary ref. 5016.
The 36.8mm watch has a large group of exceptionally well-known inconveniences, including a perpetual calendar, minute repeater, and a tourbillon.
The standard creation ref. 5016 was just delivered from 1993 till 2011, simply accessible to VIP clients through an application interaction, which goes quite far to make sense of the cost of this exceptionally convoluted wristwatch.
Sold for $7.26 million at Phillips in Geneva on 7 November 2015, at the Only Watch charity auction.
8. Patek Philippe Ref. 5208T-010 – $6.23 Million
A customary creation ref. 5208 is now an extraordinary watch, as a fantastic entanglement that flaunts a brief repeater, monopusher chronograph and an unending schedule. But rather than the valuable metals that any remaining ref. 5208 watches are made in, this model has a titanium case, the just of its sort.
Likewise exceptional to this 42mm watch is the blue dial, which has a hand-guilloche cut chequer-board style example to it. In a first for Patek Philippe, the great confusion movement has likewise been remarkably enhanced with the platinum miniature rotor seeing a similar chequer-board design carved across its surface.
Sold for $6.23 million at Christie’s in Geneva on 11 November 2017, at the Only Watch charity auction.
9. Rolex “The Unicorn” Daytona Ref. 6265 – $5.94 Million
The 37mm valuable metal chronograph was fabricated in 1970 at the exceptional solicitation of a client watch in Germany.
While Goldberger had at first expressed that he could never sell the watch, it was at the end sold with 100% of the returns going to a good cause. We generally love to see costly watches sold for a valuable motivation, particularly when they bring a few million bucks.
At a realistic budget, tips on buying silver watches for men is more use.
Sold for $5.94 million at Phillips in Geneva on 12 May 2018, with the proceeds going to charity.
10. Patek Philippe Ref. 1527 – $5.71 Million
This 37.6mm ceaseless calendar chronograph is cased in yellow gold and is one of just two known instances of this reference. As a matter of fact, this watch never had a related reference number till 2004, when the other two models were added to the Patek Philippe Museum.
This watch was finished in 1944, only preceding the finish of WWII, and is almost certain to have just been made in line with an exceptionally extraordinary Patek Philippe client. While it isn’t the costliest unending schedule chronograph that the brand at any point created, it is unquestionably the most extraordinary and generally fascinating.
Sold for $5.71 million at Christie’s in Geneva on 10 May 2010.
11. Patek Philippe Calibre 89 – $5.04 Million
At the point when the principal quartz watch was delivered on Christmas Day of 1969, it spelled the start of twenty years of calamity for the Swiss watch industry.
Incapable to rival watches from Asia being made in large numbers, brands vanished, production lines were shut and positions were lost. In a momentous proclamation to show exactly what Switzerland was able to do, Patek Philippe delivered the Caliber 89 (named so as it was delivered in 1989) as a boundary.
Sold for $5.04 million at Antiquorum in Geneva on 14 November 2009.
Four Watches With No Price Behind Them
These four sit at the top of most “most expensive watch” lists, usually with a number beside them that reads like a sale. None has ever been sold at auction. The figures are valuations and retail prices, which is a different thing, and they are labelled as such here.
Breguet “Marie-Antoinette” No. 160 – Valued at About $30 Million
Known as the Mona Lisa of the watchmaking scene, the Breguet Grande Complication No. 160 pocket watch is a work of art truly.
The watch was dispatched by an admirer of French Queen Marie Antoinette, who went to the absolute best watchmaker on the planet at that point – Abraham-Louis Breguet.
Almost 100 years before the light was imagined, the Breguet studio endured 44 years delivering the staggering 63mm pocket watch. Sadly, this was excessively lengthy for Marie Antoinette to at any point get the gift, as she was executed 34 years before it was finished.
Never sold. The watch belongs to the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem, was stolen from it in 1983 and recovered in 2007. The figure quoted for it is an insurance valuation of roughly $30 million. No price has ever been paid for it and it is not for sale, so there is nothing to rank it by.
Chopard 201 Carat Watch – $25 Million Asking Price
The Chopard 201 Carat Watch was created at the turn of the thousand years and elements 874 high-level shaded precious stones in its development.
Set in a blend of both yellow and white gold, the highlight of this watch is a triplet of three different shaded heart-formed jewels with a consolidated load of 39.52 carats. Remembered for this trio are a 15-carat pink precious stone, a 12-carat blue jewel, and an 11-carat D-variety jewel. With the press of a secret button, a spring-stacked component opens the three stones like petals in bloom, uncovering the essence of the watch.
Never sold at auction. Chopard built it in 2000 and put a price of $25 million on it. Reports of a private sale that year have never been confirmed by the house.
Jacob & Co. Billionaire Watch – $18 Million Retail
Jacob and Co. is one more watchmaker with extremely amazing gems accreditations, implying that besides the fact that the watch impeccably set is, however, the type that controls the watch is quite serious as well.
The JCAM09 type inside includes an appealing tourbillon development and is altogether skeletonized.
On the off chance that you’re a tycoon who loves emerald-cut jewels, the Billionaire’s $18 million price tag is one that ought to merit each penny.
Not an auction result. The Billionaire was launched at Baselworld in 2015 with a retail price of $18 million, and the boxer Floyd Mayweather is reported to have bought one for that sum in 2018. That is a shop price, not a hammer price.
Vacheron Constantin Ref. 57260 – About $8 Million
In 2015, Vacheron Constantin reported another 800-pound gorilla in the realm of exceptionally muddled watches.
The Vacheron Constantin ref. 57260 pocket observe apparently was 8 years being developed, flaunts 57 distinct complexities, contains 2,826 individual parts, and gauges a fantastic 957g. It even has its own site.
Never sold at auction. It was commissioned privately by a collector who has stayed anonymous, and handed over in 2015 after eight years of work. The figure usually reported for the commission is about $8 million; Vacheron Constantin has never published one.
