Picture: The world's most complicated watch on display in the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
People unfamiliar with expensive mechanical Swiss watches might be wondering why one would want a watch called “complicated”? And should you then learn that the mark-up of most Swiss watches in any shop is easily 100 percent, you would question the sanity of a decision to buy a watch costing a couple of thousand Swiss Francs. Nevertheless are Swiss watch manufacturers experiencing a boom of a lifetime because they realized it is all about branding and heritage.
The most prestigious watch brand dating back over 150 years is Patek Philippe from Geneva. The brand not only to most expensive watch ever sold (1.5mio. dollars at an auction) but also the most complicated watch named 95. The watch features every imaginative function and is on display in the Patek Philippe Watch Museum in Geneva. Even though the museum functions as a brand-beacon it is memorable for its vast collection of watches and clocks dating back 500 years. The watches on display are works of art either in pure beauty or mechanical advancement. Among my favorite items is a singing-bird clock in the shape of a little pistol made for the Chinese market in the 19th century. The watch sports a tiny moving bird that pops out of the barrel and chants a little song. The mechanism of the watch is explained and left me truly baffled. And I felt like buying another complicated and expensive mechanical Swiss watch. Not a Patek Philippe though: they are just too small for my taste (and never mind the starting price of 30'000 Swiss Francs).
Picture: An absolutely stunning antique bird-watch in the shape of a pistol. It shoots out a little mechanical bird that sings and turns while playing a tune!
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