Notes
This watch was fully described and illustrated by Reinhard Meis
as one of the most interesting watches with tourbillon ever
made, in Das Tourbillon, French Edition, Paris 1990, Editions de
1' Amateur, pp.192 to 195, fig. 226 to 234.
It was then in an open face case and with another dial with
subsidiary second on chapter III. It is also mentioned by
Chamberlain in Its About Time", 1941, p. 449, where Major
Chamberlain indicates: "I have a tourbillon lever escapement
which was made by him but never put on the market; it has the
escape wheel stationary and the anchor moving around with
the cage ,five times per minute....".
Apparently, Potter made only three watches with tourbillon in
his life, an earlier one, No. 24, made circa 1857, now in The
Time Museum, Rockford, Ill. and the third one, much later,
circa 1890, described and illustrated by Daniel and Clutton in
I,Valches, Fig. 324 a-b.
Albert H. Potter (1836-1908)
Born in Mechanieville, New York, Albert Potter began his threeyear
apprenticeship in 1852 with Wood and Foley in Albany. He
then established himself at 19 John Street and later at 84 Nassau
Street, New York. There, in addition to repair work, he made
some thirty five three-quarter plate movements, part with lever
and part with detent escapements, cased in gold, which he sold
for $225 to $350. In 1861 he went to Cuba where he continued
the same kind of work for five years, adding to his designs a
quarter repeater and a form of duplex escapement. Back in
New York, he took out his first escapement patent in 1868 and
soon afterwards moved to the West. I-Ie stayed in Minneapolis a
short time and possibly in Milwaukee, but by 1870 he settled in
Chicago. In 1872, with his brother William Cleveland Potter, he
organised the firm Potter Brothers, which was dissolved in 1875,
although the business was continued by W. C. Potter until his
death.
In October 1875, Potter took out patents on compensation
balances and improvements in escapements for watches,
assigning one half of his rights to John H. Mc Milian of Chicago.
The latter may have been in partnership with Potter in his early
venture in Switzerland. During his residence in Chicago, Potter
designed and built a pocket chronometer which may be
considered as his masterpiece. This watch was the prototype
from which he made several examples in Geneva, where he
obtained his Fermis 4'ElablissemenI on February I1, 1876. In an
article in the Horological Journal of May 1882, Potter wrote that
he invented, made drawings and working models of fourteen
different escapements. Among these was also a tourbillon lever
escapement which had the escape wheel stationary and the
anchor moving around with the cage live times per minute,
making the reversals of the momentum too rapid for good
performance. Consequently, it was never sold and further
examples were never made. As an improvement to that, Potter
took a patent in 1886 for an escapement without escape wheel,
first invented by Dcxhay in 1825 and brought out again by
Mac Dowell at the London Exhibition of 1855. This patent, with
others pertaining to the "Charmilles" watch, was assigned to the
New Haven Watch Company for a reputed filly thousand
dollars. The "Charmilles" watch was an attempt to produce
good timekeeping movements at low prices.
Albert H. Potter died on January 25, 1908, 23 rue Tronchin, in
Geneva.
Bibliography:
Paul M. Chamberlain, It's About Time, 1941, pp. 445-450.