13 QUAI DU MONT-BLANC 1201 GENEVA T +41 22 908 4814 F +41 22 908 4805 WWW.SOTHEBYS.

COM

PRESS RELEASE
Press Office: Frdric Leyat
Tel: +41 22 908 48 14
frederic.leyat@sothebys.com

THE GEORGE THOMPSON POCKET WATCH BY PATEK PHILIPPE

TO BE SOLD AT SOTHEBYS GENEVA IN MAY 2006

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DOUBLE DIALLED POCKET WATCHES MANUFACTURED

BY THE CELEBRATED GENEVA WATCHMAKING COMPANY EVER TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION

Estimated at CHF 400,000-600,000 ($ 300,000-450,000 / 250,000-350,000)*

SOTHEBYS Important Watches and Wristwatches sale to be held in Geneva on Tuesday 16th May 2006
will be highlighted by an important and unique pocket watch made by Patek Philippe for George Thompson
in 1914. This minute repeating watch with two dials displaying perpetual calendar, moon phases and split
seconds chronograph with register is estimated to fetch CHF 400,000-600,000 ($ 300,000-450000 /
250,000-350,000). Alexander Barter, Head of the Geneva Watch Department, said: Complicated double
dialled watches by Patek Philippe are exceptionally rare and little more than a handful are known. The most
famous double dialled watch is undoubtedly the Henry Graves Supercomplication, Patek Philippe & Co
which sold at Sothebys for a world record price of CHF 17,5 million ($ 11 million) in New York in December
1999**. The George Thompson watch, which remains in outstanding condition, retains its original wooden
fitted presentation case and certificate, and is offered by the direct descendants of George Thompson, an
Anglo/American Press Editor who made his career in the US. We are delighted to be offering for sale this
historic and important watch, 92 years after its original creation.
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George Thompson was born in Devonshire, England, on September 28th, 1840

and went on to be educated at Oxford University. Following graduation,
George worked for the London based private bank of Willias, Percival &
Company. In the early 1880s he relocated to America, first settling in New York
and then moving to Joliet, Illinois and finally St Paul, Minnesota, in 1885.
Having already changed careers from banking to journalism, he worked for the
St Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press, later becoming editor and owner. He was
married to Abigail (ne Wheeler) of Joliet, Illinois.

Especially made for George Thompson, the Patek Philippe no.174.480 pocket
watch is one of the most important and interesting examples of its kind to have
been manufactured by the Geneva watchmaking company. The custom made
watch was completed in 1914 and delivered on 18th October, 1915. The dials
are unique and like many of the most famous Patek Philippe watches, bear its
patrons name. With the mechanical complications of perpetual calendar,
phases of the moon, split seconds chronograph with register, minute repetition
and double dial work, it is a watch of exceptional ingenuity and quality. Interestingly George Thompson was
an accomplished mathematician, a field in which he excelled at school; perhaps this fired his enthusiasm for
mechanical complexity. Offered by the direct descendants of
George Thompson, the watch remains in outstanding condition and
retains its original wooden fitted presentation case, Certificate of
Origin, spare main springs and glasses.

Of the very few double dialled watches by Patek Philippe known to

exist, the three most important and famous Patek Philippe watches
are the legendary Henry Graves no.198.385, the James Ward
Packard no.198.023 and the Calibre 89 the worlds most
mechanically complicated watch. The Graves and Packard together
with an example of the Calibre 89 are currently exhibited at the
Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. Completed over a decade
before the first of these watches, the George Thompson
undoubtedly played its part in the development of highly complicated Patek Philippe watches. The fact that
so few double dialled watches have been made by the company, is testament to the immense amount of
work that went into their development and production.

ILLUSTRATIONS AVAILABLE VIA E-MAIL

ALL PRESS RELEASES ARE PUBLISHED ON WWW.SOTHEBYS.COM

* The estimations do not include the buyers premium.

** The most expensive timepiece sold at auction