History of Clocks and Watch

Welcome to the Westclox Clock and Watch History Database. Here you can see production dates, original retail prices and other knowledge about vintage and antique Westclox clocks and watches.

Currently, there are style series, styles and many Westclox clock models in the database. Now I'm updating the administration interface for "models" using Yii2. "Models" is the central table of the database, and will have an entry for each model of Wetclox clock and watch that I have time to enter. Models will be linked to documents (catalogs, advertisements, etc.), examples (photos and information on actual clocks and watches), and companies. Examples link to details (variations such as dial and back lettering), and details link to patents. Patents link to companies and personnel.

Documents, patents, examples, details, personnel and companies will be available for public display as soon as I can do it (later in 2016, I am hopeful).

Even though my focus is on Westclox, I'm including some Telechron clocks and Seth Thomas clocks. Schatz 400 day clocks are here too, based on my experience repairing clocks at Bill's Clockworks.

Styles and Style Series

There are many Westclox alarm clock models named Big Ben. Richard Tjarks introduced styles to organize them into groups of similar models. For example, Big Ben Style 1 and Style 1a are the leg model, and Style 2 is the first base model. Style 10 is the last numbered Big Ben style, and there are other styles with names instead of numbers. These styles constitute the Big Ben Style Series. Similarly, Baby Ben and other Westclox clocks and watches have been assigned styles. Gary Biolchini added more style series in his book Westclox - An Identification and Price Guide, and I added even more in 2012. See the top of this page for a current list of Westclox style series.