Description: Brass, 3/4 plate movement, detached lever escapement with small steel escape wheel. Three arm brass balance, jewelling only on balance, escape wheel and lever pivots. White enamelled copper dial with roman numerals, brass hands. Keyless winding through the stem. Time is set by manipulating backside of the minute hand. White metal (maillechort) case stamped on the back with ‘ROSKOPF PATENT’ logo and the date of the deposit of the patent no. 75.463 for ‘Improvement in changeable escapement for watches’ in the USA, ’10 MARCH 1868′.
Additional Info:
This is the second version of the watch called ‘the proletarian‘, as it has been conceived in 1867 to be a very affordable watch at a price of 20 CHF (Swiss Francs). As Breguet did with his ‘souscription’ more than a century earlier, Roskopf wanted to produce the best possible quality for the smallest price possible. Roskopf did not invent this type of watch, there were many even cheaper watches available at that time, but they were all of very low quality.
Georges – Frédéric Roskopf (15.05.1813 – 14.04.1889)
Born in Niederweiler (Germany) Georges – Frédéric moves soon to La Chaux-de-Fonds to learn French. He makes an apprenticeship at Mairet & Sandoz, where he sells iron and watch parts. Getting more and more interested in watchmaking. 1833 he leaves Mairet & Sandoz to get watchmaker. He starts making good quality watches and increases his network getting a great watchmaker but staying a poor salesman. So finally he sells his company in 1850. 1856 he reopens a company with his son and an associate, but somehow he does not find satisfaction in his work. The idea and the challenge to produce a watch ‘affordable for all wallets’. It will take 10 years to realize ‘the proletarian’ watch, the definitive type will be attended in March 1866. The sale of these watches starts slowly towards August 1867. In 1868 he enters the american market, as the sales increase rapidly. The best and most important client of Roskopf is Breguet, who buys 100 to 200 pieces during 1867 to 1870. In a report for the committee of mechanical arts of Paris the 24th of January 1868, Louis Breguet, the grandson of Abraham -Louis Breguet, writes that affordable watches are not new, but that the quality of the Roskopf watches is remarkable for the price and highly affordable.
Antiquarian Horology 
