Lorenz Bob

Lorenz Bob, portrait by E. Hummel (1859)

Anna Bob-Horisberger, Portrait by E. Hummel (1859)

Lorenz Bob (born August 10, 1805 in Dauchingen , † July 6, 1878 in Furtwangen in the Black Forest ) was a German watchmaker .

Bob was born the son of the day laborer Jakob Bob and his wife Anna Lauffer in Dauchingen, then Württemberg. He had 10 siblings and the extended family lived in poor conditions. Bob was married twice, first from 1829 to Adelhaid Werle until her death in March 1858, with whom he had three children. Only five months later he married his second wife, Anna Elisabetha Horisberger (1833–1907), who gave him eight more children.

Life and horological achievement

In 1820 he began an apprenticeship with a master watchmaker in Schönwald in the Black Forest and then went to Michael Dorer in Furtwangen as a journeyman .

In 1828 Bob opened a watch manufacture for large clocks in Furtwangen , which were exported to North America in the early 1830s. He must have been very successful with this, because six years later he bought a piece of land from the municipality of Furtwangen, on which he later had a new production and residential building built. Bob was the first watchmaker from the Black Forest to manufacture spring-loaded watches with metal plates. In 1841 he employed three journeymen, produced 450 clocks and his trade tax capital was 1000 guilders. This made him one of the largest local watchmakers in Furtwangen.

In the years 1842 to 1845 he made a tower clock for the parish church in his hometown. This watch must have been a great success, because it made his name known far beyond the borders of the Black Forest. The clock was lost along with the church in a fire in 1857. Mainly, however, Bob made wall and table clocks with solid brass movements, spring-loaded clocks of the Viennese design, stock clocks and calendar clocks with an eight-day movement. Tower clocks remained the exception.

On May 13, 1847, the “trade association on the clock making Black Forest” was founded and Lorenz Bob was elected to the board of directors at the founding meeting. As a member of the association, he strongly advocated the expansion of industrial watch production, but had to struggle with resistance, because many Black Forest watchmakers did not want to deviate from the traditional way of working. A particular aim of the trade association was to set up a watchmaking school. After long negotiations with the government, the company finally received approval in 1849 and in March 1850 the Grand Ducal Badische Uhrmacherschule opened in Furtwangen . The head of the school was Robert Gerwig , Lorenz Bob took over the management of the model workshop for barrel watchmaking. The school closed again in 1863.

Bob has received numerous awards and has been "by far the most capable watchmaker from the Black Forest for a long time"

Awards

• 1854 coin of honor , industrial exhibition , Munich.
• 1858 Gold Medal , Black Forest Industrial Exhibition, Villingen.
• 1861 gold medal , industrial exhibition, Karlsruhe.
• 1862 Prize Medal , Industrial Exhibition, London.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The exact figures are the result of a survey by the mayor's office of the municipality of Furtwangen in 1841.

literature

• Hans-Heinrich Schmid : "Lexicon of the German watch industry 1850 - 1980: company addresses, production program, company logos, brand names, company histories." (3rd expanded edition 2017); Editor: German Society for Chronometry eV; ISBN 978-3-941539-92-1
• Gerd Bender: Lorenz Bob, 1805–1878. Watchmaker in Furtwangen . History Association, Furtwangen 1985.
• Dana J. Blackwell: Vienna Regulators of Lenzkirch and Lorenz Bob . American Clock and Watch Museum, Bristol, Conn. 1990, ISBN 0-930476-21-2 (reprint of the Lenzkirch edition, 1870).
• Helmut Kahlert : The Black Forest clock industry in the 19th century. Remembering Lorenz Bob . In: Technikgeschichte , Vol. 51 (1984), Issue 1, pp. 14-33.