A Grand Complication: The Race to Build the World's Most Legendary Watch
It was an arms race that came down to the ticking of minute and second hands. The duel between two wealthy Americans to build and own the greatest timepiece ever constructed is meticulously narrated by journalist Perman. Spanning the Gilded Age to the Great Depression, the story focuses on the competitors, James Ward Packard, who built the luxury-car company that bore his name, and financier Henry Graves Jr. The story will attract both watch enthusiasts and readers interested in the Gilded Age, as it examines the fascinating technological complexity of timepieces in the context of the era’s overall focus on progress. The book sometimes reads as a catalog of the competitors’ acquisitions, translating the prices into eye-dropping modern figures, but Perman’s ability to enliven the narrative with sparkling historical details—packs of dogs nipping at the wheels of the first Packards—enlivens the account considerably. The battle for ever-greater timepieces reflects the distinct characters of Packard and Graves, the brilliant engineer and the crushingly competitive heir, and pays homage to the crowning achievements of a lost world of wealth, privilege, and culture. --Bridget Thoreson