Westclox Pocket Watch

If Hamilton set out to make the finest pocket watches in America, Westclox set out to make accurate timepieces affordable to the average working man. The trademark "Westclox" first showed up on Big Ben alarm clocks beginning in 1910, and was registered as a trademark in 1916. The "Western Clock Manufacturing Company" made pocket watches as far back as 1899, however. Over the decades, the different designs were given interesting names, including "Boyproof," "Pocket Ben," "Country Club," "Bull's Eye Luminous," and "Black Chief."

During the Second World War, the company switched to making aviation instruments and control pieces, compasses for the Army and clocks for the Navy. During the years 1942 to 1945 Westclox stopped making consumer watches and dedicated its resources to the war effort.

After the war, and as the parents of the baby boom generation were moving to suburbs, going to college on the G.I. bill, and in general transforming and modernizing the nation, Westclox started making "dollar [pocket] watches" in larger quantities, to appeal to this enormous potential customer base. This practice survived until the 1990s.

Some of the innovations Westclox came up with included the drowse alarm (now called the snooze alarm), and 1972 the company introduced quartz movement to its clocks. During the go-go late 80s, Talley Industries purchased Westclox's division, which soon went bankrupt. Salton, Inc. bought the trademarks "Westclox" and "Big Ben" in 2001, but six years later sold all its time products to NYL Holdings, LLC.

NYL Holdings still sells a number of clocks (but no watches) under the names Westclox, Westclox TECH, Baby Ben, Big Ben, and Ingraham. The craft of making pocket watches has mostly died out, except for the occasional cheap novelty pocket watch, so anyone wanting a Westclox "Dollar Watch" will have to find a jeweller that sells vintage pocket watches.

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