Swiss 18k gold minute repeater by Albert H. Potter Circa 1880

Gold pocket watch with minute repeater
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A Swiss gold keyless winding pocket watch with minute repeater by Albert H. Potter & Co., circa 1880. This is an open-faced pocket watch made of 18K yellow gold. It features a cut hunter-style case that can be wound without a key. The watch is round and includes a subsidiary seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock. It also has a minute repeater function with two steel gongs, which can be activated using the slide at 6 o’clock. The case back is engraved with the cypher G C M using the fine-cut technique known as taille-douce. Inside the case back, there is a tintype portrait of a lady. The watch also has a glazed cuvette or dome.
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Diameter: 51.5 mm
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Weight: 109 g.

Signed: Albert H. Potter & Co Geneva
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Tintype is a photographic technique developed by Adolphe-Alexandre Martin in Paris in 1852. Martin was a professor of physics at Sainte-Barbe College and a member of the French Society of Photography from 1855 to 1896. The technique involves creating a direct positive on a thin metal sheet coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. Tintypes were most commonly used during the 1860s and 1870s, but some continued using the technique into the early 20th century. Tintypes have been revived as a novelty and fine art form in the 21st century.

Albert H. Potter was born in 1836 in Mechanicville, New York. In 1852, he moved to Wood Fit Foley in Albany, and later, from 1855 to 1861, he lived in New York City. From 1861-1866, he resided in Havana, Cuba, then moved to Williamsburg, New York. He lived in Minneapolis until 1870, then moved to Chicago in 1870-1872, where he became a partner with his brother, William Cleveland Potter, until 1875. After that, he moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he lived until he passed away in 1908.