The Most Expensive Watches

"Though some watch companies don't make a lot of money off of their highest-end watches because of the cost of research and development, they still produce them to give their brand an ambiance of exclusivity. On the men's side, it's complications and plenty of 'em, including chronograph functions for timing laps, moon phase indicators for tracking slices of the lunar pie, and perpetual calendar functions which track days, months and even years for centuries--as if you really need a watch to tell you that.

Lately watchmakers have also begun loading their high-priced products with more useful complications, such as power reserve indicators that alert when your watch needs rewinding, or GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) functions to make it easier for travelers to keep track of multiple time zones. Invented in 1795 by Abraham-Louis Breguet, tourbillon movements have been so de rigueur on high-end watches of late they risk becoming overplayed. "There are tourbillons, and there are tourbillons," observes Morse, who notes that when less-exclusive watch brands latch onto the complication for "instant cache," they're really just "manufacturing luxury that has no soul."

If the tourbillon is bordering on overproduction, "minute repeater" functions are still on the rise. Many of the world's most expensive watches are produced in severely limited quantities--including infinitesimal editions of one--and frequently have buyers lined up long before they're finished, often at rates of just a few per year. In 1999 the most expensive watch ever sold, a 1933 gold Patek Phillipe with 24 complications, was auctioned off at Sotheby's (nyse: BID - news - people ) for $11 million.