{"id":1604600,"date":"2025-12-09T11:26:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observer.com\/?p=1604600"},"modified":"2025-12-09T11:39:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:39:19","slug":"watches-sothebys-grosse-piece-auction-record-audemars-piguet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/12\/watches-sothebys-grosse-piece-auction-record-audemars-piguet\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cGrosse Pi\u00e8ce\u201d Sets a New Auction Record for Audemars Piguet at Sotheby’s"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Audemars Piguet\u2019s \u201cGrosse Pie\u0300ce,” which sold for $7.7 million with fees over a $1 million high estimate. Courtesy Sotheby's<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sotheby\u2019s inaugural Important Watches<\/a> auction at the iconic Breuer Building on December 8 was one for the books. The sale, which included timepieces from the Robert M. Olmsted Complications Collection, achieved $42.8 million, more than doubling its high estimate and establishing the highest total ever for a watch auction in the auction house\u2019s history. Among the lots was the \u201cGrosse Pi\u00e8ce<\/a>,\u201d the most complicated known pocket watch crafted by Audemars Piguet still in private hands, which sold for $7.7 million with fees, setting a new record for the legendary watchmaker to become the most valuable timepiece by the atelier ever sold at auction and the fourth highest price ever achieved for a watch at Sotheby\u2019s. The previous record for an Audemars Piguet watch was $5.2 million for a one-of-one “Black Panther” concept watch; the next highest price was for Gerald Genta’s personal \u201cRoyal Oak,\u201d which Sotheby’s sold in 2022 for $2.1 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe record-breaking result achieved by Audemars Piguet\u2019s \u2018Grosse Pi\u00e8ce\u2019 is nothing short of extraordinary,\u201d Daryn Schnipper, Sotheby\u2019s chairman emeritus, international watch division, said in a statement. \u201cIt stands as a powerful reminder of the significance of this collection and the extraordinary heights that important horology can reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

The value of the \u201cGrosse Pi\u00e8ce\u201d lies not only in its rarity but in the remarkable convergence of innovations it embodies. Commissioned in 1914 by Smith & Sons of London for an American client and completed in 1921 after six years of meticulous work, it has been confirmed by the Audemars Piguet Heritage Department as the brand\u2019s sole watch to feature an astronomical star chart depicting 18 constellations. It is also the only known Audemars Piguet pocket watch from this period to include a tourbillon, and the pairing of that mechanism with a sky chart and 19 additional complications positions it as a peerless achievement in the history of horlogerie.<\/p>\n

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