10,000 CHF
J. L. Reutter Patent Atmos – Tiffany & Co. Atmos, “Pendule Perpetuelle”, J. L. Reutter patent, model RC2, movement No. 104, case No. 6216, Swiss. Made circa 1934. Very fine and very rare, early, Art Deco, chrome and glass, "perpetual" clock wound by changes in barometric pressure with early mercury in glass expansion device. Rectangular, chromed frame and inclined base, glazed on four sides. Matte silvered with Art Deco Arabic numerals, inner minute track. Blued steel Breguet hands. Chrome, vacuum chamber with rotating drum driven by a mercury in glass expansion device winding the going barrel by a blued steel spring and ratchet, lever escapement driven by annular torsion pendulum with large screws, locking lever in the base below the pendulum. Dial signed “Tiffany & Co.”, applied plaque on the movement bar inscribed “Brevets J.L. Reutter S.G.D.G”. Dim. height 23.5 cm., width 17.7 cm., depth 14.2 cm. Notes The History Of The Atmos Clock The following "Atmos" clocks are very early examples with the movement driven by a mercury in glass expansion device rotating a cylinder which winds the mainspring by ratchet. In the late 1920s the young engineer Jean-Leon Reutter experimented with a clock which would not need direct mechanical or electrical intervention to keep it wound, a clock powered only by Perpetual Motion. His idea of a Perpetual Motion timepiece led him to make a clock with a mechanism designed to consume the smallest possible amount of power to keep it runnin
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2010-11-13
