Gustav Becker (watch manufacturer)

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Gustav Becker (1819–1885).
Gustav Becker brand three-weight regulator with quarter and hour strike, around 1880.
Grandfather clock from the Gustav Becker brand (around 1910)

Gustav Johann Eduard Becker (born May 2, 1819 in Oels , district of Oels , province of Silesia ; † September 14, 1885 in Berchtesgaden ) was a German watchmaker and watch manufacturer and founder of the watch brand Gustav Becker .

Life and watchmaking achievement

Gustav Becker learned the watchmaking trade in Silesia and expanded his knowledge on trips to watchmakers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The trips enabled him to refine his craft and develop into an outstanding master watchmaker. During his time in Vienna , the leading center in the watchmaking trade from 1800 to 1850, the desire to found a watch factory grew in him.

After he returned to Silesia in 1845 and got married, he settled in Freiburg in the district of Schweidnitz in early 1847 . On April 1, 1847, Becker opened a watch shop there. He employed a small number of employees, including some school boys, whom he also taught the basics of watchmaking on the side. He didn't have the capital for larger purchases or machines. At first he made small numbers of pendulum clocks based on the Viennese model; In 1850 he was able to move his business to larger premises. With the support of the authorities and under the condition that 80 boys from poor families be instructed in watchmaking, he received the urgently needed machines.

Gustav Becker achieved the breakthrough when his watches were presented to a wider public for the first time at the Silesian Industrial Exhibition in 1852 and won a gold medal (French: Medaille d'Or ). He gained attention and confidence in the quality of his watches. The cross shape of this medal was later embossed on the work plates and became a trademark alongside the Gustav Becker anchor .

In 1854, major orders for the Royal Post and the Silesian Telegraph Office followed. The Duke of Racibórz granted him a generous loan with which he could build a joinery for clock cases near the train station. An extensive factory area developed from this. The simple pendulum clocks produced at the beginning gave way from 1860 to more and more elaborately designed clocks with richly decorated and carved cases and high-quality movements. Production rose rapidly in the years that followed, with production already exceeding 300,000 watches in 1875. Becker was able to win prizes at exhibitions around the world, such as B. in London, Paris, Sidney, Melbourne, Berlin and Amsterdam. Thanks to Gustav Becker, Freiburg (Silesia) developed into one of the most important industrial clock manufacturing sites in Germany in the 19th century.

Clockworks from Gustav Becker's factory are characterized by particularly high quality in terms of technology and material. This high quality requirement developed into a problem when Beckers watch factory faced strong competition from the Black Forest from 1880 onwards . There, simple and cheap clocks with spring mechanisms were manufactured in large numbers based on the American model. Sales of the expensive pendulum clocks collapsed dramatically and forced Becker to also offer cheaper spring clocks with simpler clock cases.

In 1885 Becker dedicated his anniversary watch with the movement number 500,000 to Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck on his 70th birthday on April 1st. This floor clock with a lavishly decorated, monumental case in the style of historicism has withstood the turmoil of time and is still in the Bismarck Museum in Schönhausen today.

Gustav Becker died on September 14, 1885 in Berchtesgaden on a trip through Bavaria. He was buried on September 17, 1885 with great sympathy in Freiburg, Silesia. A century after his death, his family grave was still preserved in the old cemetery in Freiburg (Silesia).

Further development of the company

The company was continued after Becker's death and merged with other companies in 1899 under the name Vereinigte Freiburger Uhrenfabriken Aktiengesellschaft, formerly Gustav Becker . In 1926 it merged with the Hamburg-American watch factory to form a community of interests. Both companies merged in 1930 with the Junghans company under the name Uhrenfabriken Gebrüder Junghans AG .

The Second World War finally ended the production of Gustav Becker watches .

literature

  • Karl Kochmann: Gustav Becker Story, 1847–1927. Merritt's Antiques Inc., Douglassville (USA) 2005. ISBN 978-0-9631669-7-5 .
  • Hans-Heinrich Schmid : Lexicon of the German watch industry 1850–1980. Company addresses, production program, company logos, brand names, company stories. 3rd, expanded edition. Ed .: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie eV Nürnberg 2017. ISBN 978-3-941539-92-1 .
  • Peter Starsy: Gustav Becker (1819-1885). The story of a watch factory. In: Watches and Jewelry. Berlin (East), Vol. 22 (1985). Pp. 148-151.
  • Peter Starsy: The "Bismarck clock" from 1885. In: Writings of the "Friends of old clocks". Ed .: German Society for Chronometry, Stuttgart. Vol. 26 (1987). Pp. 69-83.
  • Karl G. Bruchmann:  Becker, Gustav Johann Eduard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 716 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Gustav Becker  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In 1841 he was employed by the Viennese master watchmaker Happacher.
  2. ^ A b Karl Kochmann: Gustav Becker Story, 1847-1927. Merritt's Antiques Inc., Douglassville USA 2005, ISBN 978-0-9631669-7-5 . P. 5
  3. ↑ Original text: I hereby give myself the honor of showing that I am here at Bahnhofsstrasse No. 257 a. in the house of the master mason Päsler as a watchmaker. By recommending this company with inclined consideration and asking for benevolent trust in it, I allow myself the assurance that it will be my most ardent endeavor to maintain the same through strictly legal work and to show myself worthy of it. At the same time, I recommend my well-stocked watch store, whose solidity and correct operation are guaranteed. Freiburg, April 1, 1847. Gustav Becker. The Freiburg official, sixth year, No. 15, 1847.
personal data
SURNAME Becker, Gustav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Becker, Gustav Johann Eduard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German watchmaker and founder of the Gustav Becker watch brand
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Oels , District of Oels , Province of Silesia
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1885
Place of death Berchtesgaden