Saturday, January 5, 2008

ROSKOPF PATENT Pocket Watch




I want to find out more information about the ROSKOPF PATENT pocket watch as shown in the photos above, but so far to no veil. Anyone can help me on getting information on the value & history of this watch? Any help will be appreciated, as this pocket watch has special meanings to me.


I only know it is a Swiss made watch made by a German watch-maker. This is what I got from the internet.


Georges Frederic Roskopf was born the15th March of 1813 at Niderwiller .In 1829, at the age of sixteen, George travelled to La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, where he undertook a three year apprenticeship as a sales clerk with Mairet & Sandoz, a firm selling hardware and watchmaker sundries.Later, in 1834, he became apprenticed as a watchmaker to J. Biber, a firm also in La Chaux de Fonds.In 1835, financed by his wife, he set up his own watchmaker business on Leopold Robert Street. This firm worked as "etablisseur", - a company that buys watch components and assembles them. A son, Fritz Edouard was born the same year.
In 1855, again, Roskopf set up his own business together with his son, Fritz Edouard and Henry Gindraux as ROSKOPF, GINDRAUX & Co. Roskopf was an idealist who dreamed of making good quality, low cost watches for the working man. After two years, his son left him to open his own watch business in Geneva while Gindraux left him to become director of the watch making school of Neuchatel.
In 1860 G.F. Roskopf began to design a watch that could be sold for 20 Swiss francs (then a week's pay of an unskilled laborer) and still be of excellent quality, simple and solid. He called this watch "montre proletaire" (laborer's watch). At first, Roskopf met indifference and hostility among the watchmakers of the area, who were still working as a home industry and who did not wish to make a watch, suitable for mass production.
It is said, that in 1866 Roskopf ordered two boxes of ebauches (= raw watch movements) from Emile Roulet and asked Gustave Rosselet to make escapements. Both refused to take his orders. He finally succeeded in producing his watch in 1867, using ebauches and cases from the MALLERAY WATCH CO., and parts from many other makers, and having them assembled in Damprichard, France, by M. Chatelain. The original order to MALLERAY was 2,000 watches. By the end of 1867 he was in business and by 1870 he had ordered 20,000 ebauches.


Here is the entry for Georges Frederic Roskopf in Wikipedia: Georges Frederic Roskopf. It says he died in 1889, while the pocket watch was said to be made in 1896 (if 1896 on the back of the pocket watch actually indicates the manufacturing year), so this watch must be from one of his successors.


By the way, the pocket watch is still working, although not too accurate. It becomes about 5-10mins faster in a day's time :)




To my frustration, I couldn't any photo showing exactly the same pocket watch as the one in pictures above.

9 comments:

  1. according to the following article the watch is sought after, yet low in value. so you might have to keep it and pass it on to your children for it to become valuable.
    http://www.schmuckecke.de/spezialitaet/roskopf.html

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  2. here an even better idea. visit the Musée international d'horlogerie in La Chaux de Fonds. you should be able to find someone there who can help you.

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  3. Didn't expect it to be an expensive watch. It was sold for sFr20 in the 1800s, how expensive can it be today?

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  4. Nice blog you got here.. Anyway, if your looking for other related stuff.. You can find it here in this directory site about pocket watches.. It has plenty of informative sites.

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  5. please check my bl more information about Roskopf Patent Swiss Pocket Watche.

    thank you.

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  6. Hello,

    Check http://www.musketeer.ch/watches/roskopf.html#_ftn1

    I found info about my own Roskopf in this site.
    Cheers,

    Newton

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  7. Hello , my roskopf is an 1906 veritable montre chemin de fer, inside is F.E. Roskopf expositons Universelles Paris 1900 Liege 1905 and Milan 1906 - out side there is a big train a wing and the same veritable montre chemin de fer.
    Please can you tell me more about this modell?
    Müllich
    ausraum@yahoo.com.br

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  8. I HAVE A ROSKOPF POCKET WATCH IT HAS A MOTIF OF A STEAM ENGINE ON THE BACK AND THE SMALL MINUTE HAND RUNS ANTI- CLOCKWISE ... WHY IS THIS SO.
    BRYAN

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  9. Hey,

    I am making a fotoalbum from the roskopf watch.
    The book will have more than 1000 pictures off roskopf. Hope to finish the book this year but still need a lot of pictures of roskopf watches.
    You can send your pictures to willefreres@hotmail.com
    Thanks, regards Johnny Belgium

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