Backes & Strauss Royal Berkeley 43 Bespoke Limited Edition $1.5 Million Watch Sold

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Oct 6th 2010 at 9:02PM

A watch like this is proof the ultra-high end jewelry watches aren't just for show. London based Backes & Strauss just sold the first (of five) limited edition Royal Berkeley 43 Bespoke watches (wait, what is bespoke about it?). Pieces like this are made one at a time - to order. I guess that is sort of bespoke. Actually, it has to do with the custom cut of 44 of the diamonds. In a Berkeley cases, the watch is 43mm wide and are totally covered in diamonds. The start of this piece is the price, which is about 1.5 million Swiss Francs.

The first watch was just sold in Monaco (no surprise there), and celebration at the brand likely ensued. The watch was due to be a showpiece at the SalonQP watch show in London this November, but obviously will be unavailable. No time to collect another 106.45 carats of diamonds. Yes, you read that right, and this is with 330 diamonds. The case and bracelet of the watch are in 18k white gold, which you are unlikely to see under all the diamonds. Inside the watch is a Swiss automatic movement. The hour indicators on the dial are placed on the sapphire crystal, to allow for a fully diamond covered dial. The sale of the watch proves that a market for ultra high-end timepieces (especially jewelry ones) still exists.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 1.5, 43, backes strauss, bespoke, diamonds, millon, royal berkeley, sold, watch

Filed under: Jewelry, Timepieces / Watches

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