Expert: John Newman - 4/27/2010

Question
QUESTION: hi i would like to know why some movements are stamped with the makers name and some movements are not although they are made by the same maker,,regards kev

ANSWER: Kevin, it is confusing, isn't it?  Now I'm not sure what time frame or era in which you are referring.  In the last 50 or so years, there have been 3 or 4 clock manufacturers making movements for American clocks.  Herschede started out making cases and using German movements and then in 1909 developed their own movement, the first being sold in 1910.  Later they did use some other manufacturers, all, I believe, German made.  To answer your question a little more specifically, the American clock companies, to name a few, Howard Miller, Ridgeway, Emperor, Seth Thomas, and Ethan Allen used movements made in Germany by Hermle, Kieninger, Urgos and Jauch.  If a clock company bought enough movements or made it worthwhile to the movement manufacturer, they would stamp the clock companies name on them.  I would imagine the reason could be twofold, that is to show the clock company name on all components, and also to have better control to sell replacement movements through their company.  Each company would have their own model designation for the movement.  And don't we think it's fun for the clock repair shops to have to cross reference all of these numbers when ordering parts or replacement movements for a clock? Like, a Hermle 451-050 94cm would be a Seth Thomas A493-015 or an Emperor 101M.  Actually, per my references, that Seth Thomas designation could also indicate a 114cm model, which is the theoretical pendulum length.  I hope this answers your question.  I do have one more interesting tidbit.  I have actually worked on Seth Thomas clocks manufactured around the turn of the century marked "foreign".  Why would an American clock in America be marked foreign?  Well, Some European countries required that certain classes of products made in other  countries be marked "foreign", as a requirement for importing.  So, the clocks made by Seth Thomas for export to these European countries had to be marked as such.  Then American service men and women or tourists would buy them over there and bring them back to the U.S.

John Newman
THE VILLAGE CLOCKSMITH
Old Prattvillage
Prattville, Alabama
   

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi thanks for the info im sorry i didnt state which era i was talking about . its basicly before 1900 , i have several lovely old american clocks and some are named and some are not although they are the same company , hope you can help ..regards kev

Answer
Kevin, all I can say is that some did and some didn't.  The same with European movements.  The early ones were not marked with the maker's names.  Much research has been done to determine the makers by certain processes in making the components.  This applies to many unmarked movements.  In many cases, the names were put on the dials, but then sometimes the dials and movements were separated and used elsewhere in what we call a marriage.  In most cases we could call that a bad marriage, because it devalued the original value.  Also, as in modern practices, one clock company assembling clocks with their name on it, but purchased movements from another company and one or the other did not want a different name.  I'll post this question to my Internet Clocksmiths Group and see if anyone has any additional ideas.

John Newman