Henry Graves Jr. (1868–1953) was an American

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

descended from John Graves of

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the confl ...

Early life and career

He was born on March 11, 1868, in

Orange, New Jersey The City of Orange is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 30,134, reflecting a decline of 2,734 (−8.3%) from the 32,868 counted in 2000. Orange was original ...

, into a prominent banking family, the son of Henry Graves Sr. (1838–1906),"Obituary: Henry Graves"
''The New York Times'', September 1, 1906 a founder and partner in the Maxwell & Graves banking firm."The Collections of Henry Graves: The banker, aesthete and timepiece collector"
''justcollecting.com'', 2010 Graves Jr. made millions of dollars in banking and railroads. He was also an art collector whose single-owner sale was held in 1936 by American Art Association Anderson Galleries, Inc., which evolved into

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

. The highlight of that sale was Albrecht Dürer's ''

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

'', which sold for an impressive $10,000.

Watch collector

An ardent watch collector, Graves was a patron of

Patek Philippe Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer, located in the Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Established in 1839, it is named after two of its founders, Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe. Since 1932, the company ha ...

, competing with

James Ward Packard James Ward Packard (November 5, 1863 – March 20, 1928) was an American automobile manufacturer who founded the Packard Motor Car Company and Packard Electric Company with his brother William Doud Packard.Adler, Dennis (2004). ''Packard''. Mo ...

, the automobile manufacturer, for ownership of the most complicated watch in the world.Perman, Stacy
''A Grand Complication: The Race to Build the World's Most Legendary Watch''
Atria Books (Simon & Schuster), February 2013. In 1927 Packard commissioned a complicated watch but, not to be outdone, Graves surpassed his rival in 1933 to become the owner of the most complicated watch ever made.

Supercomplication watch

It was called

Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication The Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication (no. 198.385) is one of the most complicated mechanical pocket watches ever created. The 18-karat gold watch has 24 complications and was assembled by Patek Philippe. It was named after banker ...

. Designed and built by Patek Philippe, it was an ultra-complicated (24 functions)

pocket watch A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristw ...

. Graves spent 60,000

Swiss francs The Swiss franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues banknotes and the f ...

(

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

$15,000) (), nearly five times the price paid by Packard. It took three years to design, another five to manufacture, and was sold to Graves on January 19, 1933. The most advanced techniques in horological engineering produced a truly one-of-a-kind timepiece; only one watch was ever built. Complications included a

perpetual calendar A perpetual calendar is a calendar valid for many years, usually designed to look up the day of the week for a given date in the past or future. For the Gregorian and Julian calendars, a perpetual calendar typically consists of one of three ...

with phases and age of the moon, indication of sunrise and sunset, and a celestial chart depicting the stars in the nighttime sky over New York City.-
Graves died in 1953. His heirs sold the watch in 1968 to The Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois, which closed in March 1999. (From January 2001 through February 2004 the Time Museum collection was displayed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, then sold.) The watch was held in the Rockford Time Museum until it was sold at

for a record-breaking $11,002,500 to an anonymous bidder in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on December 2, 1999. The owner was later known to be a member of the Qatari Royal Family, Sheikh

Saud bin Muhammed Al Thani Saud bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani (28 February 1966 – 9 November 2014) was a Qatari prince who served as minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage. By the turn of the 21st century, Shaikh Sa’ud had establish ...

. The watch was on loan to the Patek Philippe MuseumPatek Philippe Museu
"''Select'': The Collection/ Patek Philippe Collection/ Complex pocket watches (1851-1989)/ The Supercomplication"
www.patekmuseum.com-

Museum website. Retrieved November 12, 2014 in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, Switzerland for several years, and was the most expensive single piece on display.
On July 10, 2014, Sotheby's announced that in November 2014, the watch would once again be auctioned. It sold for 23.2 million Swiss francs (≈USD $24 million/ ≈19.3 million Euros) at Sotheby's in Geneva on November 11, 2014, setting a new record price for any timepiece sold at auction.

Personal life

In 1896, Henry Graves married Florence Isabel Preston of Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, and they had four children. They owned several vacation homes in addition to their residence in New York City. The family spent their summers at their homes in Irvington and

Saranac, New York Saranac is a town in Clinton County, New York, United States. The town is on the western border of the county, west of Plattsburgh, and is within the Adirondack Park. The population was 4,007 at the 2010 census. The town is named for the Sarana ...

. In Saranac, the Graves owned Eagle Island, where Graves reveled in boating. The island is a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

and has been operated for many years as a children's summer camp.

Death

Graves died aged 85 on March 21, 1953, in

Early life and career

Watch collector

Supercomplication watch

Personal life

Death

References

Further reading