Museum piece
The elongated wooden case of this UROSA mantel clock has a distinctive shape that would have looked futuristic in the 1950s. The dial is printed on the back of the glass: the light field, dark oval center and hour markers form the dial. The gold-colored hands sit in front. The low profile and slender feet emphasize the clock’s broad shape.
Inside is a mechanical UROSA movement with a balance wheel. The clock has no striking mechanism.
Manufacturer
Roßla · Harz – Saxony-Anhalt · Germany
UROSA was the brand name of VEB (K) Feinmechanische Werke Roßla/Harz. The name UROSA is derived from the initial letters in Uhrenfabrik Roßla Sachsen-Anhalt (Roßla Clock Factory, Saxony-Anhalt). The company was founded shortly after the Second World War as a privately owned enterprise in Roßla, Saxony-Anhalt, on the southern edge of the Harz. Before 1954, the factory was expropriated and transferred into public ownership. It then operated under the name VEB (K) Feinmechanische Werke Roßla/Harz.
The company produced table, wall and kitchen clocks with and without striking mechanisms, including models with eight-day and fourteen-day movements. Before 1974, clock production in Roßla was gradually relocated as part of industrial consolidation, including the concentration of large clock manufacturing at enterprises such as VEB Uhrenwerk Weimar, and was eventually discontinued entirely.