Jean-Léon REUTTER - Atmos clock, in chromed metal... Lot 180

Jean-Léon REUTTER - Atmos clock, in chromed metal and glass slabs, rectangular shape, champagne dial, stylized Roman numerals, pierced hands, open window for observing the balance, signed ATMOS perpetual clock. Screwed dial and back, setting wheel with R-A on the back. The front opens for the adjustment of the hands. On the back a riveted plate, engraved Patents J.L. REUTTER, S.G.D.G, Made in France. Note the beautiful Art Deco style typography of the numbers, which can be compared to the work of Charles Peignot and Cassandre. Chrome wear on the base and top, dial and numerals slightly pitted. Perpetual mechanical movement, as is (it seems to work). Numbered on the movement 3581. Circa 1935. H. 25,50 L. 44.80 D. 13.20 cm Jean-Léon REUTTER (1899-1971), an engineer from Neuchâtel, trained at the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich, then at the Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité in Paris, was deeply attached to the research of perpetual motion. He focused his studies on the use of variations in temperature and atmospheric pressure. To do this, he used a capsule sensitive to these variations, until he obtained an almost "perpetual" mechanism with a very low energy consumption. He filed the first patent in 1929, supported by the Compagnie Général de Radiologie de Paris. The meeting of Jean-Léon Reutter and Jacques-David LeCoultre, who bought the patent in 1935, enabled the invention to become a true emblem of the symbiosis between scientific research and watchmaking.