| What do you collect? | Clothing + Fashion | Jewelry + Watches | Pottery + Glass | Furniture + Home | Art + Photos | Music + Movies | Toys + Games | Sports | Coins + Stamps | Paper + Books | Ads + Signs | Autos + Transport | Eras + Decades | All » |
New Haven Clocks
About Antique New Haven Clocks
Founded in 1853, the New Haven Clock Company was the first to mass-produce brass clock movements in America. The company was formed to supply these movements to the Jerome Manufacturing Company, then the largest clockmaker in the world. When Jerome went bankrupt in 1856, New Haven Clock Company purchased it.
One of the primary benefits of the Jerome purchase for New Haven was the good reputation of the Jerome brand and the network of companies that remained interested in selling its clocks. In England, Jerome & Co. Ltd. sold Jerome clocks for New Haven until 1904, when New Haven purchased the English firm outright...
Among the Jerome clocks that New Haven produced for export was an 1860 mantel clock called the Duchess. It had a rosewood veneer case, an angled top, Roman-numeral letters on its dial, and a glass window to reveal the swinging pendulum inside.
Double-dial calendar clocks, for walls and shelves, were also popular. Some had light oak cases, some were made of rich walnut, and still others were produced by New Haven for the National Calendar Clock Company. One of these has three finials on top and is especially sought by collectors of antique New Haven clocks thanks to the word "Fashion" emblazoned between the two dials (Fashion was a popular magazine of the day; Seth Thomas and others also made these so-called Fashion clocks).
Perhaps the most collectible of the late 19th-century New Haven clocks is the Ignatz, or flying pendulum shelf clock, from 1884. Instead of a lever, anchor, recoil, or other traditional type of escapement, the flying pendulum had a ball-and-string "tetherball" escapement that whipped from side to side on the top of the clock’s case. New Haven produced them as Jerome & Co. clocks, but only for about a year.
New Haven made hundreds of other models, from banjo clocks to regulators to grandfathers, with names like Anglo, English, Glenor, and Occidental. In 1880, they even added a line of non-jeweled pocket watches.
But mismanagement plagued the otherwise successful company. After flirting with bankruptcy in 1894, New Haven pulled itself together in 1902 when Walter C. Camp, who was then known as the "father of American football," took the company’s reigns, modernized to reduce costs, and, in 1915, added wristwatches to the company’s offerings.
The changes Camp instituted were enough to keep the company profitable through the Depression, but after World War II, the company struggled through disruption caused by a takeover and poor sales, finally folding operations in 1960, a little more than 100 years after it had been founded.
Key terms for Antique New Haven Clocks:
Escapement: A device that converts the pressure of a spring or coil into a fixed release of movement.
Post an Event
Upcoming Events
- Sense of Time
Jan 12–Apr 30. Columbia, PA. - 65th NAWCC National Convention
Jun 16–20. York, PA. - WS-120 Using the Micro Mill for the Beginner
Jun 19–20. Columbia, PA.
Interviews & Articles
An Interview With Antique Clock Collector Bill Stoddard
How did I get interested in clocks? Something about them has always been ingrained in me. My mom’s father had a sma… [more]
An Interview With 19th Century Antique Clock Collector Dave Weisbart
I was working as a jewelry department manager for a department store, and I had a customer who brought a clock in f… [more]
An Interview with Tall-Case Antique Clock Collector Gary Sullivan New!
As a teenager, I got into repairing the old furniture in our attic. One day, I wandered into a local antiques shop … [more]
Best of the Web (“Hall of Fame”)
National Watch and Clock Museum
This virtual museum, created by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, lets you stroll through tim… [read review or visit site]
Clockhistory.com
Bill Stoddard's clock history site offers a trove of great reference information on clock and watch makers includin… [read review or visit site]
National Maritime Museum
Check out this sampling of nautical and maritime items held by the U.K.'s National Maritime Museum and Royal Observ… [read review or visit site]
Dan and Diana's Lux Clock Collection
Dan and Diana Lockett's amazing collection of several hundred novelty Lux clocks made by the Lux Clock Manufacturin… [read review or visit site]
Detex Watchman's Clock Album
Philip Haselton's guide to watchmen's time recording equipment. Includes 19th century German portables, 20th centur… [read review or visit site]
Got a site to suggest? Let us know.
Clubs & Associations: Clocks
Discussion Forums: Clocks
Other Great Reference Sites: Clocks
- Bowes Museum: Clocks and Watches
- Dave's American Clocks
- Cadrans-Solaires Sundials Site
- Antique Clock Guy Reference Library
- The Canadian Clock Museum
- Clockwatch.de
Are we missing one? Tell us.
Top eBay Auctions Help | Get weekly New Haven Clocks email
»» Get our weekly New Haven Clocks email
Clocks
- overview
- Ansonia clocks
- Ingraham clocks
- New Haven clocks
- Sessions clocks
- Waterbury clocks
- Seth Thomas clocks
- Gilbert clocks
- French clocks
- German and Austrian clocks
- wall clocks
- mantel clocks
- grandfather clocks
- cuckoo clocks
- regulator clocks
- calendar clocks
- weight driven clocks
- banjo clocks
- alarm clocks
- ships clocks
- advertising clocks
- Art Deco clocks
- Mid-Century clocks
- Coca-Cola clocks
- suggest a category
- see all categories