Westclox
History
Anglo-Celtic's lesser American competitor, the Westclox pocket-watch and alarm clock company of La Salle, Illinois was formed in 1885 by a German emigre; by 1910 they were producing 6,000 clocks a day. Soon after developing the 'Big Ben' alarm, a Canadian factory was established in 1919. The company became a subsidiary of the General Time Corporation in 1930 and set up further assembly plants in Canada while investigating assembly plants in Britain at Cumberland, Sunderland and South Wales; they settled on a disused dye-mill (Dahmonach Works, Bonhill) in Dumbarton, Scotland in 1936 aiming for production by 1939, but war intervened. Pilot manufacturing was delayed until 1946 when the factory was finally tooled up and new a 60,0000 sq.ft factory in Vale of Leven Industrial Estate, Strathleven, Dumbarton was completed for assembly of clocks from American-made components. By November 1949 they had 320 employees.
By 1948 Westclox was claiming to have produced 200 million timepieces, worldwide! Scottish production finally began in December 1948 with a basic 'Good morning' alarm (22/6d inc PT in 1952) followed by their mantel clocks, although Scotland initially produced only 4" movements. Their one millionth British-made clock was produced in September 1950; the factory was expanded by 40,000sq.ft in 1952 with the 'Baby Ben' at 44/9d following in July 1952. Soon they were expanding into the full product range including the famous 'Big Ben' alarm clocks. Produced almost entirely in-house at Dumbaton, production rose to 10,000 a week with up to 40% of production being exported, mainly to US Dollar markets.
A new Westclox pillar-plate wristwatch factory, built opposite the clock factory, opened in 1959, the same year that production began in Canada (other factories existed in Austraila and Brazil). However, their new, inexpensive, non-jewelled, Roskopf pattern pin-pallet wrist-watches and timers failed to secure an acceptable market share; indeed the "Which?" pin-pallet watch test of August 1962, rated the Westclox WB14 (0-jewel) as 'poor' in time-keeping while the potential wear rate of their (and the 1-jewel Timex GBS) conical pivot was rated only 'fair' in contrast to Anglo-Celtic/Ingersoll's jewelled movement which was rated 'good'. Never-the-less, production of the non-jewel Westclox watch continued into the mid-1970s.
Although Westclox UK became independent of its American parent in 1960, Dumbarton, now with three factories, became headquarters in 1976 to General Time (International Operations) Ltd. They continued production of their famous 'Big Ben' alarm clocks until cheaper quartz movements of the 1980s brought about its closure in 1988. Today's (very inferior) 'Westclox Big Ben' alarm clocks, with nylon gears, are made in China.
