The History of Westclox Wrist Watches
Westclox introduced “Wrist Ben,”
their first wrist watch, in 1936. Wrist Ben was on the market for years
and went through many style changes. Other popular models and their
years of introduction include: Judge, 1938; Rocket, 1939; new Wrist
Ben, 1950 (curved to fit the wrist); LaSalle, 1950; Troy, 1953; new
Rocket, 1953; Kim, 1953; new Judge, 1953.
Westclox made their own watch movements
for many years, but starting in the 1960's some watches were made in
Germany. Beginning in the 1970's, some with jeweled lever movements
were made in Japan and France.
Many more models will be shown after
I get the Westclox model database up and running!
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| View of a 1936 advertisement
showing the first Wrist Ben wristwatch models |
Wrist Ben (top) and Lance
wrist watches from a 1952 Westclox advertisement |
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Westclox “Watchlarm”
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Paul Neupert sent in this photo of a Westclox
alarm wristwatch and asked for information.
The sliding switch at 9:00 turns
the alarm off and on. The pusher at 1:30 moves the alarm arrow
pointer in quarter-hour increments - 15 minutes per push. The
crown winds both the time and alarm and is pulled out to set the
time. The top of the dial says "Westclox" and "Shock Resistant".
Above the numeral 6 it says "Alarm" in red letters. The bottom
of the dial says "LaSalle, Ill. U.S.A."
Answer from Ellworth Danz, LaSalle,
Illinois, former Chief Stylist at Westclox: This wrist watch is
the Westclox "Watchlarm ". This is listed in the 1960 watch catalog
and also 1961 full line catalog. The 1960 catalog number for the
metal band model was 790-LB but in 1961 when Westclox went to
IBM numbers for everything it was 35048. The leather strap model
was 790-L and in 1961 35046. The retail was listed as $17.95 for
the metal band watch and $16.95 for the leather strap watch. I
have a model in excellent condition and timed the alarm ring duration
at 8 seconds They were difficult watches to make, and I don`t
think Westclox made any money on them. I believe they are rare
today. I removed the back and the movement is stamped W5. It was
made at the LaSalle-Peru plant and probably used some components
of the W4. Manufacturing and Engineering used those model designations,
but they were not used in the catalogs by Marketing.
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