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Kal’tsit Token: A peculiar pocket watch, never seen in countries before, with four years and dates engraved on it, as well as a few twisted letters.
A reference to Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication, “the most complicated timepiece in the world”. It amounted to over US $ 24 million in 2014.
The Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication (# 198.385) is one of the most complicated mechanical pocket watches ever created. The 18k gold watch has 24 complications (functions) and was assembled by Patek Philippe. It was named after the banker Henry Graves Jr who supposedly commanded it out of his desire to surpass the Grande Complication pocket watch from American automaker James Ward Packard. The two were both at the top of the world of watch collectors, regularly ordering innovative new timepieces. Henry Graves spent 60,000 Swiss francs (US $ 15,000) when he ordered it in 1925. Adjusting for inflation, the sum works out to approximately $ 219,000 in 2019.
It took three years to design, and five more to manufacture the watch, which was delivered to Henry Graves on January 19, 1933. The Supercomplication was the most complicated mechanical watch in the world for over 50 years, with a total of 24 different functions. . These included Westminster chimes, a perpetual calendar, sunrise and sunset times, and a celestial map of New York City seen from the Graves’ apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue. The record was broken in 1989 when Patek Philippe released the Patek Philippe Caliber 89, but the Supercomplication remains the most complicated mechanical watch built without the aid of computers.
The timepiece contains 920 individual parts, with 430 screws, 110 wheels, 120 removable parts and 70 jewels, all handcrafted on a small scale. The timepiece is a gold watch, double dial and double aperture, minute repeater with Westminster chime, large and small bell, split-seconds chronograph, 60-minute and 12-hour counters, perpetual calendar precise to the year 2100 , moon-phases, equation of time, double power reserve for chime and train departure, mean and sidereal time, central alarm, indications for sunrise / sunset times and a celestial map for the night sky of New York at 40 degrees 41.0 minutes north latitude.
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