Georges Frédéric Roskopf

Roskopf clock

Movement of a Roskopf watch model from 1867

Georges Frédéric Roskopf (born May 15, 1813 in Niederweiler as Georg Friedrich Roskopf , † April 14, 1889 in Bern ) was a German - Swiss watchmaker. Roskopf is considered to be the inventor of the Roskopf watch with a pin lever escapement .

biography

In 1829 Roskopf came to La Chaux-de-Fonds to learn French and began an apprenticeship as a businessman at F. Mairet & Sandoz, a watch parts dealer. He then completed an apprenticeship as a watchmaker with J. Biber from 1833 to 1835 . In 1835 he married Françoise Robert Theurer, wealthy widow of Théophile Lorimier. 1835 founded Roskopf a Établisseur -Werkstatt that he had to sell 1850th From 1851 onwards he worked with the Gutmann brothers. In 1855 Roskopf founded the company Roskopf, Gindraux & Co. with his son Fritz Edouard and Henri-Edouard Gindraux . In 1857 the co-owners left the company. Fritz Edouard Roskopf set up his own workshop and Gindraux became director of the watchmaking school in Neuchâtel .

Starting in 1860, the first own variant of the pin lever escapement was used to reduce manufacturing costs. This enabled Roskopf to offer a pocket watch that cost just 20 francs, which was the weekly wage of a worker. From 1867 onwards, the inexpensive 'Prolétaire' pocket watch was sold with only 57 individual parts, for which Roskopf received a bronze medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1867 . For this watch model he received the Belgian patent No. 21988 of August 3, 1867 for the external design, the US patent No. 75,463 of March 10, 1868 for the pin lever escapement and the French patent No. 80611 of March 25, 1868 for a Clock with a pin lever escapement in its own modular work plate . In Switzerland there was a lack of novelty for a patent, as the invention of the pin lever escapement by Louis Perron was already known there.

Louis Breguet wrote a letter of praise for Roskopf in 1868 to the Société pour l'Encouragement de l'Industrie nationale en France . In 1869 he received a silver medal at the world exhibition in Amsterdam. The successor model followed in 1870 with a hinge for the case back and was sold for 25 francs. This watch had an enlarged barrel and hairspring based on a patent by Adrien Philippe , for which royalties were paid.

The Roskopf watches were also built by other manufacturers under license. In addition, Roskopf watches were copied by various watchmakers and the counterfeit watches were sold under brand names such as B. A. Rosskopf & Co , Louis Roskopf & Cie , Roskopf K. & Cie , Oter Roskopf , Sistema Roskopf , J. Roskopf or W. Roskopf .

In La Chaux-de-Fonds, however, industrial series production was perceived as a threat to manual production, which was reflected in Roskopf's public hostility. After his wife's death in 1872, he remarried in 1873, moved to Bern and sold the company together with the patents to Wille Frères & Cie. Their owners were the brothers Charles and Eugène Wille and Charles Léon Schmid. Charles Wille was married to the granddaughter of Roskopf's first wife. In 1874 Roskopf took on Swiss citizenship in Cernier .

After Roskopf's death, several brands were created by companies that claimed to be legitimate successors. Among other things, Fritz Edouard Roskopf and his son Louis-Frédéric Roskopf sold watches under the brands FE Roskopf , Louis Roskopf SA , Petit Fils Roskopf and Roskopf Nieto . After the patents expired, Roskopf-type watches were also made by Reconvillier Watch Co. , Oris , Dubois Frères, and Vittori .

literature

• Albin Schaeder: The Proletarian Watch - A celebration of George Frederic Roskopf and his idea to produce a reliable and affordable watch for the great masses in the 19th century . Self-published, Sweden, ISBN 978-91-631-9608-9 (English, probably 2007).
• Eugene Buffat: History and Design of the Roskopf Watch (1914, English translation 2007).

Web links

Commons : Roskopf  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Estelle Fallet: Roskopf, Georges-Frédéric. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• The Roskopf Watch. on musketeer.ch. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
• Index of British and Irish Makers listed on this website - R. on clockswatches.com. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
• Biography. on datacomm.ch. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
• Biography ( memento of February 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
• Portrait ( memento of December 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).