Roskopf Watches Reach 100th Anniversary

By Bruce Shawkey

I wouldn't normally report on Roskopf watches, as they are cheaply built timepieces with base metal cases that show wear-through after a short time. They are the bane of most every watch collector. However, this article from a 1964 issue of Europe Star magazine shows a couple of Roskopf watches that aren't all that bad looking from a cosmetic standpoint:

Georges Frederic Roskopf (15 March 1813 – 14 April 1889), was the inventor of the pin-pallet escapement. He was born in Germany and became a naturalized Swiss citizen.

Roskopf watches trace their roots back to 1829, when George Roskopf, then 16, traveled 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’s  supplies. This was his introduction to the watch making industry.

In 1835, financed by his wife, he set up his own watchmaker business. Roskopf was  an idealist who dreamed of making good-quality, low-cost watches for the  working man. In 1860 Roskopf began to design a watch that could be sold for 20 Swiss  francs and still be of good quality, simple and solid. He called this  watch "montre proletaire" ... the laborer’s watch. In 1867 Roskopf finally succeeded in producing his watch.  The  original production was 2,000 watches. By the end of 1867 he was  in business and three years later he had expanded orders tenfold,  producing 20,000 watches.

The advent of wristwatches in the 1920 saw the appearance of Roskopf wristwatches. Somewhere along the line, Roskopf ceased to be a brand name, and came to be known as any type of watch that held to the basic definition of a working man's watch ... decent quality, simple and solid. A number of watch companies sold them, including the Basis Watch Company, whose ad you see above.

Basis Watch was founded  in Tecknau, Switzerland. It remained in business until the '70s.