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 running. His design included a device powering the movement independently, using mercury - a substance which would react to the most sensitive changes in temperature and atmospheric conditions. Reutter developed a specially designed glass tube similar to that of a thermometer for the mercury and encased it all inside a metal cylinder, known as the Bellows. The result was an ingenious new clock unlike any other, past or present, a timepiece that would run independently and continuously, so incredibly sensitive that it could be rewound by the slightest fluctuations in the atmosphere or by the slightest changes in temperature, hence the name: "Atmos Clock". These first models used the mercury in glass expansion device. Later, due to dangers in handling and instability, the mercury in the Bellows powering the Atmos Clock was changed to a more stable saturated gas, ethyl chloride. Reutter's system was patented in 1928 and improved by Jaeger-LeCoultre. The ?perpetual? movement is defined as ?a movement which continues to function indefinitely without any exterior source of energy?.
Jean-Léon Reutter (1899-1971) was fascinated by the idea of the perpetual movement. Ath the age of 14 he had already begun his first designs for the perpetual clock and after attending the l?Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Zurich and the l?Ecole Supérieure d?Electricité in Paris he presented his first prototype of his revolutionary new clock powered by the energy created by variations in atmospheric pressure. The name for this new invention was ?Atmos?. The first clocks were made in very small numbers and it was not until 1930 that he launched the first publicity campaign. The appearance of Reutter?s very earliest clocks did not please him and it was by chance that the collaboration with LeCoultre took place, leading to the designs that are now known as the ?Atmos Clock?. Jacques-David LeCoultre happened to see a Reutter clocks in a shop window in Paris and out of curiosity he purchased one. At first he thought it impossible to produce, but having studied it he saw both its qualities and its faults. He contacted Reutter to suggest improvements and thus from 1932 the Maison LeCoultre entered into collaboration with Reutter to make the Atmos. After six years of experimentation, the early mercurytype mechanism was changed to one using gas (ethyl chloride) and by 1946 the first fully developed Atmos appeared on the market. During the 1950s, the Atmos gained popular acclaim and became the favored official gift for visiting dignitaries to Switzerland. Amongst those who received Atmos clocks as gifts were Winston Churchill, President J.F. Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II. Today the Atmos remains as popular as ever, with new models being launched regularly.