  We determine the $1/m$ and $1/m^2$ spin-independent heavy quarkonium
potentials in the unequal mass case with $\mathcal O(\alpha^3)$ and $\mathcal
O(\alpha^2)$ accuracy, respectively. We discuss in detail different methods to
calculate the potentials, and show the equivalence among them. In particular we
obtain, for the first time, the manifestly gauge invariant $1/m$ and $1/m^2$
potentials in terms of Wilson loops with next-to-leading order (NLO) precision.
As an application of our results we derive the theoretical expression for the
$B_c$ spectrum in the weak-coupling limit through
next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO).
