📅 Sunday, August 30, 2026

Patek Philippe is renowned for precious metals, but when a unique stainless steel Grandmaster Chime was forged for charity, it shattered expectations. Featuring 20 complications and a reversible case, this one-of-a-kind masterpiece fetched a staggering $31.19 million at a 2019 auction, making it the most expensive wristwatch ever sold.

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Patek Philippe is synonymous with precious metals and traditional haute horlogerie, but in 2019 the manufacture created something deliberately extraordinary for the Only Watch charity auction: Grandmaster Chime Reference 6300A-010, the first and only version of the Grandmaster Chime produced in stainless steel. In a world where steel would normally be considered less intrinsically valuable than gold or platinum, its uniqueness made it considerably more tantalizing to collectors. Christie’s

And this wasn’t simply a special case wrapped around an ordinary watch. The Grandmaster Chime contains an astonishing 20 complications, making it Patek Philippe’s most complicated wristwatch. Among them are five acoustic functions: grande sonnerie, petite sonnerie, minute repeater, an alarm that actually strikes the programmed time, and a date repeater capable of acoustically sounding the date on demand. Patek identifies the alarm-with-time-strike and date repeater as patented world exclusives. Patek Philippe SA

Then there’s the case itself. The enormous 47.7 mm stainless-steel case uses a patented reversing mechanism, allowing the wearer to rotate the watch and display either of its two faces. One side features a rose-gold-colored dial with applied Breguet numerals; the calendar side is black ebony. Despite the steel exterior, Christie’s specifies that the actual dial plates are made from 18K solid gold. Christie’s

Patek made the Only Watch edition unmistakably unique in another wonderfully unsubtle way. On the alarm subdial appeared three words:

“THE ONLY ONE.”

And it really was. Reference 6300A-010 was created specifically for Only Watch 2019, with Christie’s describing it as the one and only stainless-steel Grandmaster Chime. Christie’s

Then came November 9, 2019, at Christie’s in Geneva. The bidding climbed through territory normally associated with historically important paintings rather than wristwatches. When it finally ended, the hammer had reached an extraordinary:

CHF 31,000,000

That was approximately US$31.1 million, and it established a new world auction record for any watch, not merely a wristwatch. The previous wristwatch auction record had belonged to Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona, while the famous Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication had held the broader watch record. The steel Grandmaster Chime surpassed them both. Christie’s

And there’s another reason the result mattered: Only Watch is a charity auction. The event was established to raise funds for research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and Christie’s reported that the 2019 auction generated CHF 38,593,000 in total. That means this single Patek accounted for the overwhelming majority of the entire sale’s proceeds. Christie’s

⭐ Why It Matters

The extraordinary irony is that steel helped make the watch more valuable, not less. In ordinary material terms, stainless steel is nowhere near as precious as gold or platinum. But collectors weren’t buying raw material—they were competing for uniqueness, complication, provenance and historical significance.

Category: Record Breaker

Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to keep these watch facts accurate, but the world of horology is full of myths, disputed stories, and fascinating trivia. Consider these facts a starting point for discovery rather than the final word. If you have corrections or additional insights, let us know—we’re always happy to keep the record ticking in the right direction.

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