Brad Pitt has reportedly purchased a £5 million watch from an auction in Geneva.

The 51-year-old actor is believed to have bid for the collector's item when he attended the Only Watch auction in Geneva and came away with the rare Patek Philippe wristwatch, which sold for a record-breaking price.

The Swiss-made timepiece was originally listed with an asking price of roughly £460,000 but after an intense bidding war it went under the hammer for just under £5 million.

The auction house said in a statement: ''[It's] the highest price ever paid for a wristwatch at auction.'' It's not the first time the Hollywood heartthrob has forked out on expensive timepieces. Last year, the 'World War Z' actor paid £250,000 for one of the world's most expensive watches at the time as a wedding gift for wife Angelina Jolie.

Brad - who has six children, Maddox, 14, Pax, 11, Zahara, 10, Shiloh, nine, and seven-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with his wife - is said to have snapped up the watch, also a Patek Philippe, without being put on a two-year waiting list.

A source previously revealed: ''Brad decided to buy one of the amazing watches after meeting the Stern family at a watch fair in Basel. ''He wanted to buy Ange a unique gift that very few people own which is like a piece of art - and the highly sophisticated watch is just that.

''It chimes sounds based on Big Ben and is constructed by hand. ''He went to Geneva to pick it up and it's believed he'll present it to Ange as a pre-wedding gift.''