Antique Silver Wille Frères Roskopf Pocket Watch

Antique Wille Frères Roskopf pocket watch.

The watch has a stem-winding movement which is working nicely. The movement is signed Roskopf and it also has a couple of brevet (patent numbers). 22530 relates to a 1900 patent in the name of Wille & Cie and the other, 6269, relates to an 1893 patent in the name of Charles Leon Schmid & Cie and Wille Frères.

Roskopf was founded by George Frederic Roskopf in 1855, his dream was to make affordable watches for the working man. In an effort to increase sales, in 1867 Roskopf employed Charles Leon Schmid, his target was to sell five to six hundred watches per month. Schmid had the inspired idea to offer the watches to different European armies and railroad companies and it was so successful that demand could not be met.

After the death of his wife Francoise in 1872, George Roskopf sold his house in La Chaux de Fonds and handed over his business to Charles Léon Schmid and the brothers Charles and Eugène Wille, forming Wille Frères.

The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover which has images of exhibition medals won in Geneva in 1896.

The watch measures 53mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is 800 silver and there are Continental hallmarks inside the case back together with the Roskopf logo. The front of the case is in good condition, there is some unevenness to the sides and to the hinged case back which originally would have had engine turned detail but this has worn down over the years.

The acrylic lens is in lovely condition.

The signed dial has a couple of hairline cracks but they are very faint, really only visible through a magnifying loupe. Lovely ornate pin-set hands and a 24 hour outer dial.

The watch comes in a new presentation box.

ALL PRICES INCLUDE UK POSTAGE (because of GPSR legislation, we no longer post items less than 100 years old to Europe, including Northern Ireland).

Please contact us regarding international shipping.

All of our watches are checked over before listing, and are also checked for accuracy which is usually within around +/- two to three minutes over 24 hours (unless otherwise stated), which is considered respectable for a vintage watch.

We are a VAT registered company and all purchases are covered by Consumer Regulations.

Credit / debit card purchases up to £300 can be made over the telephone on 01386 750238 or you can proceed via the 'Purchase Antique' button on each listing page. Alternatively, there is a Paypal payment link if you scroll down the page and we also accept bank transfers.

We are an on-line only business and do not have facilities for callers. Our offices are open from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

With regards to appraisals / valuations, we receive a huge number of information requests each day and unfortunately do not have the manpower to deal with them all individually. Our advice would be to contact a local auctioneer for a full appraisal.