The world's "most complicated" watch sold at a Geneva, Switzerland Sotheby auction Tuesday for a record $24.4 million to an undisclosed buyer.

Called the "holy grail" of timepieces by some, the handcrafted "Henry Graves Supercomplication" watch was specially ordered by New York banker Henry Graves in 1925. Weighing more than a pound and made of gold, the watch has 900 separate parts and 24 complications, or movement functions.

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The last owner of the watch was a member of the Qatari royal family, Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Bin Al-Thani. Following booming auction sale values for Patek Philippe watches this century, it was released for auction this year to mark the 175th anniversary of the Swiss watchmaker.

The price tag made this watch the most expensive ever sold at auction. It had a reserve price in the $15 million range, but bidding drove it to new heights.

One of the world's most famous watches came to be due to a contest between Graves, and James Ward Packard, the famed automaker. They each loved watches and entered into a gentleman's competition to see who could commission Patek Philippe's most complicated watch. In this case, complicated meant having the most unique functions.

Packard sprang to the lead with a 16-complication watch in 1916. Graves went him eight complications better with the watch he ordered in 1925 and was delivered to his Upper East Side home in January 1933. It cost $15,000, about $200,000 in 2014 dollars.

Packard died mid-competition in 1928, leaving Graves with a bittersweet victory. Fearing family members might be kidnapped due to the watch's notoriety, Graves wanted to ditch the timepiece in a lake, but was convinced to do otherwise. It stayed in the family until 1969.

The superstar pocket watch is "not a watch you can wear," said Tim Bourne, Sotheby's international head of watches. "It is a watch that symbolizes strength, power and money."

While super-luxury watchmaker Patek Philippe holds the naming rights, the watch wasn't designed or built at its Geneva worksop. It was "outsourced" in today's term to several Swiss specialists in the watchmaking Mecca of le Vallee de Joux, a mountainous area 30 miles north of Geneva. Sotheby's auction catalogue said it took nine workshops to finish the job.

Watch complications include chimes emulating those of Westminster, moon phases and ages; sunrise and sunset movements, a perpetual calendar that adjusts automatically and a remarkably precise New York celestial sky map, among other movements.

Tagspatek philippe, watch, timepiece, henry graves, swiss watches, complicated, Auction, swiss, jewelry, Sotheby