We give the exact critical frontier of the Potts model on bowtie lattices. For the case of q = 1, the critical frontier yields the thresholds of bond percolation on these lattices, which are exactly consistent with the results given by Ziff et al. [J. Phys. A 39, 15083 (2006)]. For the q = 2 Potts model on a bowtie A lattice, the critical point is in agreement with that of the Ising model on this lattice, which has been exactly solved. Furthermore, we do extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the Potts model on a bowtie A lattice with noninteger q. Our numerical results, which are accurate up to seven significant digits, are consistent with the theoretical predictions. We also simulate the site percolation on a bowtie A lattice, and the threshold is s(c) = 0.5479148(7). In the simulations of bond percolation and site percolation, we find that the shape-dependent properties of the percolation model on a bowtie A lattice are somewhat different from those of an isotropic lattice, which may be caused by the anisotropy of the lattice.