Henry Graves

Henry Graves Jr. (1868–1953) was an American banker descended from John Graves of Concord, Massachusetts.

Early life and career He was born on March 11, 1868, in Orange, New Jersey, into a prominent banking family, the son of Henry Graves Sr. (1838–1906), a founder and partner in the Maxwell & Graves banking firm. In 1927 Packard commissioned a complicated watch but, not to be outdone, Graves surpassed his rival in 1933 to become the owner of the most complicated watch ever made.

Graves died in 1953. His heirs sold the watch in 1968 to The Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois, which closed in March 1999. (From January 2001 through February 2004 the Time Museum collection was displayed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, then sold.) The watch was held in the Rockford Time Museum until it was sold at Sotheby's for a record-breaking $11,002,500 to an anonymous bidder in New York City on December 2, 1999. The owner was later known to be a member of the Qatari Royal Family, Sheikh Saud bin Muhammed Al Thani. The watch was on loan to the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, Switzerland for several years,

On July 10, 2014, Sotheby's announced that in November 2014, the watch would once again be auctioned. It sold for 23.2 million Swiss francs (≈USD $24 million/ ≈19.3 million Euros)

Personal life In 1896, Henry Graves married Florence Isabel Preston of Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, and they had four children. They owned several vacation homes in addition to their residence in New York City. The family spent their summers at their homes in Irvington and Saranac, New York. In Saranac, the Graves owned Eagle Island, where Graves reveled in boating. The island is a National Historic Landmark and has been operated for many years as a children's summer camp.

Death Graves died aged 85 on March 21, 1953, in New York City.