Top ten of the Most Expensive Watches of the World

Even though collecting watches is one of the most expensive hobbies worldwide, it can also take us to many antique timepieces and also to modern innovations giving to the activity or to the search of unique models one of the most satisfying rewarding.
The are a wide range of prices when speaking about watches. The top 10 most expensive watchmakers companies around the world are: Vacheron Constantin, Blancpain, Audemars Piguet, Girard-Perregaux, ChronoSwiss, Chopard, Jaeger-LeCoultre, International Watch Company (IWC), Omega and Breguet.
As for a top ten of the most expensive watches, from the most expensive one to the tenth most expensive (but not the most):

– Chopard’s 25 Million Dollars Watch
This unique timepiece is ornamented with three local point heart-shaped diamonds (a fifteen carat pink diamond, a twelve carat blue diamond and an eleven carat white diamond) in addition to the 163 carats of white and yellow diamonds, brings a total of 201 carats.

– Patek Phillipe’s Supercomplication: 11 Million Dollar Watch
The Supercomplication watch it is said to have been produced by James Ward Packard in order to commission a watch containing the most complications worldwide. Even though Henry Graves Jr, the banker for whom the watch was produced in 1932, won the contest, the watch wasn’t beaten till fifty years later when Patek Phillipe came up with the 33 complications watch, the 18 carat gold Caliber 89. The price of this timepiece is 6 million dollars.

– Patek Phillipe’s Platinum World Time: estimated over 4 Million Dollars
This Patek Phillipe’s Platinum World Time is believed to be an only one time creation and when produced, the most expensive watch at the moment.

– Vacheron Constantin’s Tour de I’lle: 1.5 Million Dollars Watch
After over 10.000 hours of research in order to create the Tour de I’lle Vacheron Constantine’s watch, the brand came up with the world’s most complicated wristwatch. This wristwatch was produced in a limited edition of seven only one of its kind watches that combine horological complications with astronomical indications .

– Hublot Black Caviar Bang, 1 Million Dollar Watch
Topped with some extremely rare black diamonds, 531 widely distributed black diamonds. Most of them are square cut not less than 322 stones on the case, 179 on the bezel and 30 at the end of the strap, on the clasp. Not just the diamonds make of this watch a very exclusive one, but also, the complications and the design.

– Big Bang Chronograph Hublot’s Wristwatch: 1 Million Dollar Watch
Hublot together with a diamond-setting workshop (Bunter SA) designed and developed an inimitable watch called Big Bang. It features an invisible setting were the only things that can be seen are the diamonds.

– Classical Billionaire Tourbillion Corum’s Wristwatch: 998,000 Dollars
The sparkling wristwatch features 850 diamonds and also has a stunning carcass dial with hour and minute hands. The watch has a 90-hour power reserve and a Caliber CO-372 by Corum and La Joux-Perret. Only 10 pieces are in production.

– Tecnica Skeleton Chronograph: an 850,000 Dollars Parmigiani Fleurier’s Wristwatch.
It features: platinum case, minute repeater, tourbillon and chronograph, as well as a cathedral chime, between many other attractions like the diamonds it features and its amazing design.

– Grande Complication Blancpain’s 785.000 Dollars Wristwatch.
This wristwatch features a minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph, tourbillon, perpetual calendar, moon phase, an automatic winding mechanism, a sleek crocodile wristband. It is said to take the maker from 8 to 10 months to put together all the 740 components and that only 18 of that brilliant limited edition run of 30 watches have been assembled till now.

Filed under: Chopard, Chopard Watches, Corum, Corum Watch, Hublot, Hublot Watches, Patek Philippe, Patek Philippe Watches, Vacheron Constantin, Vacheron Constantin Watches

What is an anti-shock device and how does it work?

The anti-shock device is a flexible comportment intended to soften shocks so that the pivots inside of the case do not brake by receiving violent movements.

In 1933 Hans Marti, an engineer, patented a system called “Incabloc ®”. This system was based in a conical setting placed in a solid truncated cone located in the watch’s frame. The whole unit was supported by a cautiously calibrated mechanism.

In presence of a shock episode, the setting would slide into the cone allowing the pivots to transfer the shock to the frame. Then, wheels would be pulled back till being placed in the center again by the spring. This would allow the setting apart into its constituent pieces without having to remove the balance.

Some of the most prestigious watchmaking companies that have incorporated this mechanism are:

Between many others watchmaking companies like Rolex, in which in its Sea Dweller DEEPSEA watch features a Parachrom hairspring with high resistance to shocks and magnetic fields, most of the wristwatches’ comapanies have incorporated such mechanism.

Similar systems are ETA’s Etachoc, Rolex’s Kif‘, Seiko’s Diashock, and Citizen’s Parashock.

Filed under: Incabloc shock protection system, luxury watches, Mens, Panerai, Panerai Watch, Panerai Watches, Rolex, Rolex Watch, rolex watches, Watch, Watches, Womens

Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection

The Ulysse Nardin Ulysse 1 watches, technically and aesthetically beautiful, honor the horological pioneer whose name is by now, a legend. They feature the same amazing power reserve indication as the Macho Palladium: both the hand and the underlying disk move. It comes in pink gold and in a limited edition in plati

Filed under: Ulysse Nardin, Ulysse Nardin Complications, Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date, Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950, Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection, Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo, Ulysse Nardin San Marco, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection, Ulysse Nardin Watch, Ulysse Nardin Watches

Ulysse Nardin San Marco

At the time of Ulysse Nardin’s revival in 1983, it didn’t only set out to perpetuate it’s many great mechanical achievements, but also to restore the art of enameling, which involves the meticulous process of filling delicate patterns outlined by gold wire with vitreous enamels which are then repeatedly kiln fired layer by layer to achieve the proper consistency and color. It is this rare art that decorates the Ulysse Nardin San Marco collection with famous naval scenes, ships, or renowned historical architecture. The Ulysse Nardin San Marco lady is available in yellow gold or white gold.

Filed under: Ulysse Nardin, Ulysse Nardin Complications, Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date, Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950, Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection, Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo, Ulysse Nardin San Marco, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection, Ulysse Nardin Watch, Ulysse Nardin Watches

Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo

In 1995 Ulysse Nardin patented the Big Date dual window display, adjustable both forward and backwards, which is now in use in the beautiful tonneau shape of the Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo. There are several other complications available, including a dual time with dual pushers (like the GMT+-), a chronograph, and a uniquely designed perpetual calendar, the Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo Perpetual Ludovico. Ulysse Nardin also offers the Michelangelo in a Lady and Midsize version, utilizing the smooth lines of the tonneau shape to create a very elegant and feminine watch. The Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo lady watch is also available tastefully decorated in pave diamond patterns.

Filed under: Ulysse Nardin, Ulysse Nardin Complications, Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date, Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950, Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection, Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo, Ulysse Nardin San Marco, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection, Ulysse Nardin Watch, Ulysse Nardin Watches

Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection

Ulysse Nardin celebrates their history with the Marine collection by producing a whole line of marine chronometers, which gave fame to the company on their early days and are still very priced by enthusiasts and collectors. There is a varied selection of movements, from a perpetual calendar mechanism, power reserve indicator, the chronograph, or the annual calendar with chronograph, and of materials, like stainless steel, pink gold or white gold, all of them notable for their water resistance, accuracy on timekeeping, and fine hand finished surfaces.
Ulysse Nardin Lady Marine watches are also available in pink gold and stainless steel, with and without diamonds.

Filed under: Ulysse Nardin, Ulysse Nardin Complications, Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date, Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950, Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection, Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo, Ulysse Nardin San Marco, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection, Ulysse Nardin Watch, Ulysse Nardin Watches

Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950

With the Macho Palladium Ulysse Nardin introduces a material previously used only in jewelry to the Haute Orlogerie world. Palladium is a material, discovered in 1803, similar to Platinum but slightly whiter, much lighter and about 12% stronger. The movement on this watch also has a distinguishable feature which was first used on a Ulysse Nardin pocket watch in 1912: both the hand on the power reserve indicator and underlying disk move. When the movement is wound the disk rotates counter-clockwise until the largest segment of the scale reaches the power reserve hand. When the watch is not being worn, the power reserve hand rotates counter-clockwise until it reaches the smallest segment of the scale.

Filed under: Ulysse Nardin, Ulysse Nardin Complications, Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date, Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950, Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection, Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo, Ulysse Nardin San Marco, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection, Ulysse Nardin Watch, Ulysse Nardin Watches

Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date

Ulysse Nardin created with this watch a perfect companion for the traveling bussinesman. The master watchmakers at Ulysse Nardin have incorporated into this watch a unique patented design which allows for the hour hand to be adjusted forwards or backwards with the use of two pushbuttons, independent of the minutes or seconds hand. A window display indicates the home time, for easy reading.
Ulysse Nardin also offers the GMT+- Big Date in a lady size, with mother of pearl dials in several pastel shades, as well as the added elegance of diamonds.

Filed under: Ulysse Nardin, Ulysse Nardin Complications, Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date, Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950, Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection, Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo, Ulysse Nardin San Marco, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection, Ulysse Nardin Watch, Ulysse Nardin Watches

Ulysse Nardin Complications

Ever since it’s birth, Ulysse Nardin has been at the forefront of outstanding developments in horological technique and from the hand of Ludwig Oechslin, Ulysse Nardin has created the most complicated watch in history, the Astrolabium, as well as a whole array of models which cover the extent of horological experience, such as minute repeaters with automatons, tourbillons, as well as the first perpetual calendar in history with bi-directional adjustment of all calendar displays.This collection also features the Freak, a dual escapement beauty with no hands.

Filed under: Ulysse Nardin, Ulysse Nardin Complications, Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date, Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950, Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection, Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo, Ulysse Nardin San Marco, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection, Ulysse Nardin Watch, Ulysse Nardin Watches

The History of Ulysse Nardin

Ulysse Nardin, born in 1823 in Le Locle, Switzerland, was an acomplished watchmaker having first been trained under his father, Leonard-Frederic Nardin and later perfected his skills with two master watchmakers, Frederic William Dubois and Louis JeanRichard-dit-Bressel.Ulysse Nardin, the company, was founded in 1846 and remained under Ulysse’s control until his passing in 1876, when his 21-year old son, Paul-David Nardin took over.

Since the founding of the company, Ulysse Nardin was known for their high-quality and high-accuracy craftsmanship, so much so that they became known worldwide for their Marine Chronometers, the most accurate mechanical clocks ever made, achieving a precision of around a tenth of a second per day.

In exhibitions held at various locations, such as Paris, London, Tokio or Buenos Aires, Ulysse Nardin received a total of:
14 Grands Prix (First Prizes)
the “Prize Medal” (1862 – London International Exhibition)
the “Progress Medal”
10 Gold Medals
2 Prix d’Honneur
2 Silver Medals

Until 1967, one second was defined by the rotation of the earth, and because of this, competitive chronometer watches were calibrated and certified in an astronomical observatory. The Observatoire Cantonal de Neuchâtel was the main Swiss observatory where such certifications were done, and in 1975, when the accuracy of mechanical timepieces became irrelevant with the advent of quartz watches, it released a publication regarding the performance of chronometers from 1846 to 1975: of the 4504 certificates awarded in this period, 4324 went to Ulysse Nardin.

In 1983 Ulysse Nardin was purchased by a group headed by Rolf W. Schnyder, its current president. Mr. Schnyder brought in Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, a scientist, inventor, historian and watch-maker extraordinaire with whom they set out to design and develop complicated timepieces that had never before existed. The first example of this was the Astrolabium, introduced in 1985, part of the Trilogy of Time along with the Planetarium Copernicus (1988) and the Tellurium Johannes Kepler (1992).

The Ulysse Nardin Astrolabium, entered into the Guinness Book of Records in 1989 as the most complicated wristwatch ever made with 21 complications, indicates the position of the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky at any given hour as seen from Earth, as well as sunrise and sunset, dawn and dusk, moonphases, moonrise and moonset, eclipses of sun and moon, the month and the day of the week.

Filed under: Ulysse Nardin, Ulysse Nardin Complications, Ulysse Nardin GMT+- Big Date, Ulysse Nardin Macho Palladium 950, Ulysse Nardin Marine Collection, Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo, Ulysse Nardin San Marco, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Collection, Ulysse Nardin Watch, Ulysse Nardin Watches

Piaget & Co Watches History

Piaget & Co. was founded in 1874 by Georges Piaget, a farmer who became a watchmaker in the village of La-Cote-aux-Fees. He decided to assemble watches in order to earn some extra money during the winters.Not much is said about the company’s first years, only that his sons took over the business and run their father company through the First World War, the Second World War and the Great depression.

Before World War II, Piaget watches were sold through other companies which engraved their names on the dials. However, after World War II, Gerald and Valentin Piaget, the founder’s grandsons, took over the company and decided to give the company a turnover and place it in the marketplace following a plan. A new collection of wristwatches was released and caused an awesome sensation. The rest is history.

Foreign markets such as the United States opened up during the 1950s and this led to the establishment of branch offices in New York, Geneva and Germany. It helped that the company introduced a number of innovative movements during this period, such as the ultra-thin nine line “9P” movement. This allowed Piaget to create a popular series of elegant, ultra-thin wristwatches for both men and women. Another commercially successful movement was the “12P”, which was the world’s thinnest automatic watch movement until 1967.

In order to have a strict control of quality, the company bought up several case and bracelet manufacturers.

A few years late, Piaget’s market started to change its focus. The watches featured an appearance of fine jewellery.

Not only could the dials be found in a number of styles, but also the materials used became exotic. There were more jewellers than watchmakers employed by the House.

Nevertheless, though Piaget did not ignore the new quartz technology, it continued manufacturing mechanical wristwatches.

Companies such as Rolex and Omega began to dominate the sports watch field, Piaget took a very sensible decision: he decided to specialise in the dress and jewellery watches.

Piaget was recognized as one of the world’s most successful watch companies in the 1970s, thanks to successful model as the polo watches, which has an appealing solid gold bracelet.

Piaget successfully brought the counterfeiters in Hong Kong and Italy to court, putting an end to the problem.

Nowadays, Piaget is extremely well known for its ladies watches and solid gold dress watches.

Though complicated watches continue to be produced in limited quantities, most Piaget watches are jewellery-oriented. To wit, Piaget buys several thousand carats of the best quality gemstones, together with five tons of gold. It should also be mentioned that every component in a Piaget watch, besides the movement, is made of solid gold, even the dials.

Filed under: Piaget, Piaget Watch, Piaget Watches

Patek Philippe Twenty~4®

Patek Philippe Twenty~4® was created thinking about a refined, active woman of today who looks for a watch that shows her style and is to be wear on all occasions. Each model is characterized by perfection in craftsmanship, and curved silhouette of the case.Each model is recognized by Top Wesselton diamonds on the bezel, the case, and/or the bracelet. The crown of each Twenty~4® is studded with an onyx or a diamond solitaire. The gold collection consists of precious small-size models and pieces of high jewelry. A line of Twenty~4® rings and earrings accompanied the watch’s collection.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Patek Philippe Grand Complications

Complications in watchmaking has become on of the most important challenges of the designer’s expertise and watchmakers’ skill. At Patek Philippe we master all horological complications and have twice this century built the world’s most complicated portable timepiece. In order to make of this watch a jewel of timeless worth, artistic and skilled watchmakers have worked on this collection.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Patek Philippe Complicated Watches

A ‘complication’ in watchmaking refers to mechanical features that a watch can have apart from telling the time and the date. Patek Philippe follows a tradition in complications that are necessary for everyday situations, such as Annual Calendars, dual time zones and World Time displays.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Patek Philippe Nautilus

Nautilus collection shows the flattering redesign Patek Philippe‘s elegance and sophistication. The universal shape of a porthole found on virtually all maritime vessels. The original model was the Ref. 3700/1 in steel. Nautilus is defined as a classic elegant sports watch and the original reference is one of the most sought-after timepieces at auction.

Filed under: Uncategorized