Clock Companies

Looking at the Major Companies


American clocks date back to the 1600s. In 1810, Eli Terry sold his clock factory to Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley and started to develop a new shelf clock. He bought land and a factory in Plymouth, Connecticut and had his new clock in production by 1815. Wood clock movements were used until around 1820 and then brass movements replaced wood. Eli’s first clock was called a Pillar and Scroll clock and was the first clock to be mass produced. After that, a huge number of clockmakers existed along with even more variety in case styles. However, there were around seven major clock manufacturing companies:

  • Ansonia Clock Company: 1850-1929

  • William L. Gilbert Clock Company: 1871-1964

  • E. Ingraham and Company: 1860-1945

  • New Haven Clock Company: 1853-1960

  • Sessions Clock Company: 1903-1969

  • Seth Thomas Clock Company: 1853-1917

  • Waterbury Clock Company: 1857-1944



Some of these companies continued to exist but manufactured other timepieces or items rather than key-wound clocks. We would like to say that other websites have researched and collected the information provided here. We have condensed it specifically to deal with the kind of clocks we work on. We are not responsible for any inaccuracies in information. Please check out other websites for more detailed information.



Ansonia Clock Company

1850-1929

The Ansonia Clock Company was one of the major 19th century American clock manufacturers. It produced millions of clocks in the period between 1850, its year of incorporation, and 1929, the year the company went into receivership and sold its remaining assets to Soviet Russia.


It began in 1844 as The Ansonia Brass Company and was formed by Anson Green Phelps. At age 31, he moved to New York and joined forces with another Connecticut trader, Elisha Peck. As the firm of Phelps & Peck they exported Southern cotton to England and imported metals to New York in return, becoming New York’s largest metal importer of the time.


After his partnership with Peck dissolved, he formed the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Company with two of his sons-in-law. They remained a leading New York metals importer and was located on the east bank of Naugatuck River, just nine miles from New Haven. Originally part of a larger area called Derby, when this area wanted to be incorporated in 1889, it was named Ansonia in honor of Anson Phelps.


By 1850, The Ansonia Clock Company was formed as a subsidiary of the Ansonia Brass Company by Phelps and two Bristol, Connecticut clockmakers, Theodore Terry and Franklin C. Andrews, to expand his brass company. They displayed their cast iron clock case in the 1853 New York World’s Fair. They were one of only three companies that exhibited.


Andrews left the company in 1952 and sold his shares to Terry, and Anson Phelps died a year later at the agre of 73. He left his interest in the Ansonia Clock Company to his son-in-law, James B. Stokes.


In 1854, a huge fire destroyed their factory, amounting to $100,000 in damage but they were only insured for $50,000. After that, Theodore Terry became involved with P. T. Barnum and sold clocks under the name of Terry & Barnum Manufacturing Company until they filed for bankruptcy in 1856.


The Ansonia Brass Company continued as a subsidiary of Phelps, Dodge & Company from 1854 to 1869 to make brass movements for other companies. It was then that full-scale clock production resumed under the name of Ansonia Brass and Copper Company. They offered around 45 models of clocks and fourteen different movements.


By 1877, the Ansonia Clock Company was reborn and incorporated in New York City. Henry J. Davies from Brooklyn, also a clockmaker and inventor, joined them. He is thought to be largely responsible for the success of the company at this point with figurine clocks, swing clocks and other novelty clocks.


A second factory was opened in Brooklyn, NY in 1879 but burns down a year later. They rebuild in 1881. Two years later, their Connecticut factory is closed and everything moved to New York. By 1886, they had more than 225 different clock models and by 1914, they had over 440 different models.


By WW1, sales started to drop. Competition was great. Both took their toll. Their models offered dropped down to 136 and they discontinued their black iron mantel clocks, china cased clocks and statue clocks. By 1927, the number of models offered dropped to 47 and two years later they were bought out by a Russian company.



William L. Gilbert Clock Company

1871-1964

In 1871, the William L. Gilbert Clock Company was formed in Winsted, Connecticut. William had been involved in various clockmaking partnerships up until this time. By 1873, a new factory was completed and manufacturing commenced. George B. Owen became the general manager and ran the firm for nearly 50 years, designing many interesting cases and patenting several clock movement features. Owen also operated a concurrent clock business at Winsted between 1875 and 1894.


The Gilbert company expanded, building a four-story building for a new case shop, building another building for storage and shipping and also a three-story office building. When the recession began in 1907, financial pressures of their expansion caused the company to suffer and forced George B. Owen and his sons to surrender control in 1914.


Bankruptcy was avoided and a new manager, Charles E. Williams, was appointed and served until his death in 1930. Pressures of the Great Depression and money spent in developing electronic clocks finely sent the business into bankruptcy in 1932.


By 1934, a new firm known as the William L. Gilbert Clock Corporation was formed. It was one of the few companies allowed to continue clockmaking during World War 11 because it was able to manufacture clocks without metal cases, having installed machinery in 1940 to produce cases from molded paper-maché. However, they ended up selling their business to Spartus Corporation in Chicago in 1964 because they had not been able to make a profit in the last twelve years.



E. Ingraham and Company

1860-1945

E. Ingraham & Company was formed in 1860 by casemaker, Elias Ingraham. He originally rented, and later purchased, a shop on Birge Pond in Bristol, CT, which had been used by a number of clockmaking companies since 1820.


In 1865 the company decided to establish their own movement making facility. Veteran clockmaker, Anson L. Atwood, was hired and set up and managed the movement department for the company for a number of years. Meanwhile, Elias designed a variety of popular cases and case features, receiving seventeen patents. Many of his cases used an unusual figure "8" door design for which he also received a patent. Rosewood veneered cases with names such as "Doric", "Venetian" and "Ionic" were often made in several sizes and held their popularity with the public for many years.


Elias Ingraham's son, Edward took over as head of the business in 1885. He also received an important patent in 1884 for a method of applying black enamel paint to wooden clock cases. Using this method to produce cheaper imitations of French marble mantel clocks was a huge success. Though the process was soon imitated by other clock manufacturers, the Ingraham firm became the leading maker of "black mantel" clocks, introducing 221 styles plus special-order.


Ingraham's clock-making ceased during World War II, just like so many other clock manufacturers. They did not resume business after the war.



New Haven Clock Company

1853-1960

The New Haven Clock Company was founded in 1853 in New Haven, Connecticut by Hiram Camp. The mission was to mass produce inexpensive brass clock movements for his uncle Chauncy Jerome’s clock company that was located nearby. Unfortunately, Chauncy made some bad investments and his company went bankrupt in 1856. So, the New Haven Clock Company bought out Chauncy’s operation and they began making their own clocks.


In 1866, their factor burned down, but they rebuilt it and expanded. Around 1870, they marketed some of their clocks under the name of Jerome & Company and marketed and sold other companies' clocks. However, by 1885, they stopped everything except selling their own brand.


By 1890, they had developed serious financial problems by overpaying big dividends to the stockholders and leaving little in reserve. A year later, Samuel A. Galpin replaced Hiram Camp as president and he kept the company going until 1897. They reorganized the company again and put Walter Chauncey Camp in charge.


The company underwent several more reorganizations as the road became rocky, including Edwin P. Root and Richard H. Whitehead. By 1929, the Great Depression took its toll, but it kept going. By World War II, they were almost exclusively producing products, including wristwatches, for military use.


After the war in 1946, the company reorganized again but left itself open to foreign investors. They never recovered and the company filed bankruptcy in 1956 and closed its doors in 1960.



Sessions Clock Company

1903-1969

The Sessions Clock Co. was formed in 1903 when William E. Sessions and some of his family members took over part of the E. N. Welsh Co. in Forestville, Connecticut. He had inherited his father’s interest in clocks from his father who had designed clock cases for the Welsh company. Under William’s management, the company produced all components of their clocks, including movements, cases, dials, artwork and castings and produced advertising wall clocks for businesses, regulator clocks, and various styles of shelf and mantel clocks.

Ownership changes started occurring in the late 1950s, and Sessions was finally liquidated in 1970.


By the 1930s, William realized that the future of clockmaking was moving to electricity, so they started to produce electric clocks, timers for radios, televisions, and other devices and continued to manufacture traditional brass mechanical movements.


In 1956, they were absorbed by a company interested primarily in their timing devices. The new owners ran the firm until 1969, when a decline in business forced its closing.



Seth Thomas Clock Company

1853-1917

The Seth Thomas Clock Company was organized in 1853 in Plymouth Hollow, Connecticut as a joint stock corporation which included Seth Thomas’s clock operation that he started in 1814. After his death in 1859, his son, Aaron, became president. They purchased patent rights and added three new models to their line in 1862. They had three patent dates on their dials: September 19, 1854, November 17, 1857, and January 31, 1860. Their fourth and final patent date was March 1, 1862, and carried on most of their calendar clocks manufactured until 1876. After that, they received another patent to improve the mechanism which remained in production until 1917.


The company was very successful and was considered the “Tiffany’s” of Connecticut clock manufacturing. They were one of the most prolific and love-lived clock companies. Their products were always above average. They were one of the only companies to not suffer a fire and maintain financial stability. They had a subsidiary company called Seth Thomas’ Sons & Company that manufactured higher-grade 15-day mantel movements.


In 1931, the company became a subsidiary of General Time Instruments Corporation and passed from the hands of the family but continued on for many years.



Waterbury Clock Company

1857-1944

In 1857, The Waterbury Clock Company began as a subsidiary of Benedict & Burnham, a brass manufacturing company. They saw clock-making as a way to use their own brass. Over the years, Waterbury became one of the leading manufacturers of clocks.


Because they started out as a brass manufacturing company, they lacked an experienced clock maker. Chauncey and Noble Jerome entered the scene and production grew rapidly, including a new production facility in 1873 in Waterbury, CT.


By the turn of the century, Waterbury was turning out an amazing 600,000 clocks and watches each month with a workforce of 3,000. By 1915, Waterbury was making more clocks than any company in the United States.


Tragedy struck in 1861 when Noble Jerome was walking along and killed by a falling balustrade (railing) from a building. Silus B. Terry, took over from there. He was the son of Eli Terry, a famous clock maker of the time.


Just after the American Civil War, the company built to large factories, but they were both destroyed by fire. They factories were rebuilt and their business took off.


However, by 1931, the company’s business was in rapid decline. Most of the profits had been taken by the directors instead of being reinvested and their buildings and equipment were either in disrepair, idle or obsolete and they had a large inventory of unfinished clocks.


Throughout this period, Waterbury had maintained a relationship with R. H. Ingersoll & Brother, a mail-order company. When the Ingersoll company fell on hard times in 1922, Waterbury bought the company and became Ingersoll-Waterbury Company.


As did many companies during World War II, Waterbury shifted gears to support the war effort. During this period, in 1942, Ingersoll-Waterbury was purchased by a group of Norwegians, who built a new factory for their firm in Middlebury, Connecticut. They also changed the company’s name to the United States Time Corporation, the forerunner of Timex.


By 1949, Waterbury discontinued production of mechanical clocks.