Clocks

INDUSTRIAL CODES

NAICS: 33-4518 Watch, Clock, and Part Manufacturing

SIC: 3873 Watches and Clocks Manufacturing

NAICS-Based Product Codes: 33-45182, 33-45184, and 33-4518W

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

Among all instruments that measure time, clocks belong to the larger variety typically hung from walls, displayed in cases, or placed on the night table to wake us up when we need rousing. All watches, by contrast, are carried on the body, usually on the wrist, occasionally in a pocket or on a chain around the neck. Clocks are devices in which a mechanism is moved by a spring, by electric power running through a wire, coming from a battery or from solar energy, or by weights suspended from the mechanism by chains. Clocks of unusual design may also be moved by falling water, and sundials rely on the movement of the sun to cast a shadow on a semi-circular clock face. The mechanism moves coordinated pointers that indicate the current hour, minute, and optionally also the second, with time measured from zero hour presumed to take place at midnight. Two kinds of display are used, ignoring sundials: circular panels with numbers depicting the hours from 1 through 12, thus half of one day. In this scheme, the 12 serves both to mark noon and midnight, thus the beginning of periods as well as their termination. This standard clock face is called an analog indicator. The other kind is digital. It is a display which simply shows the time in numbers that change every minute, thus 3:15 a.m., for example.

There are many types of clocks. Alarm clocks, grandfather clocks (also known as longcases), hourglasses, mantel clocks, and sundials are common and well known. There are also clocks made for special markets such as high-precision chronometers and atomic clocks used in science. Clocks also serve symbolic uses. A biological clock refers to the effect of time and repetition on life processes. The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face maintained since 1947 by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The clock is shown with the clock hands some number of minutes before midnight, with midnight symbolizing nuclear war. World events continually move the minute hand closer or further from the midnight hour.

Early Clocks

The ancient Sumerians and Egyptians relied on the stars to note the passage of time and to predict the seasons. The Egyptians observed that a group of stars (the Sirius or Dog Star constellation) rises next to the sun every 365 days. They also realized that there was a difference between the number of days in the year when measured by the position of the moon and sun. After making this observation, they were able to create the first 365-day calendar, dividing the seasons into four-month time spans. Later, they relied on sundials and water clocks to measure the passing of time; some hold that sundials and water clocks may have been used by even earlier civilizations. Sundials were used to mark the time by noting the shadow of the sun as it moved across the sky. Water clocks, first used around the fifteenth century BC, used the rise or fall of water in a tank to measure the passing of a certain amount of time. Water clocks could be a simple collection of bowls while some versions could be much more complex structures. Burning candles could also note the passing of time; candle clocks were used around the ninth century AD. Water clocks, candle clocks, sand clocks (hourglasses), and similar timekeeping methods were used around the globe.

These timepieces had various limitations. A sundial, for example, cannot tell time at night. A more reliable timepiece was needed. Some historians credit monks and religious institutions generally with leadership in this art. Monks and church members relied on clocks to schedule their services at consistent times. Religious organizations relied on bells and chimes to mark these times; the original meaning of the word clock was bell according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Bells and chimes were used outside monasteries and churches as well; they might be used to mark the beginning and end of a workday, for example, or the start of public meetings. Woodworkers, scientists, jewelers, and metalworkers improved upon these early timekeeping devices.

It is unclear when the first mechanical clocks actually appeared. Historians believe it was sometime in the late thirteenth century. The first clocks began to appear in public squares about this time. The clock of the Church of St. Eustorgio in Milan in 1309 is thought to have been the first clock in Europe. Mechanical clocks work with an escapement. The escapement is a balance wheel that mediates the transfer of the energy of the gravitational force acting on the weights attached to the clock's counting mechanism; it creates the clock's forward movement, or its ticking. The most common escapement was (and still is) the verge-and-foliot. In a typical verge-and-foliot escapement, the weighted rope unwinds from the barrel, turning the toothed escape wheel. Controlling the movement of the wheel is the verge, a vertical rod with pallets (hooks) at each end. When the wheel turns, the top pallet stops it and causes the foliot, with its regulating weights, to oscillate. This oscillation turns the verge and releases the top pallet. The wheel advances and the bottom pallet catches it. The process then repeats.

By the fifteenth century the first spring-driven clocks were invented. These clocks were smaller and lighter than their mechanical brothers; unfortunately, they were also just as inaccurate. The problem was the mainspring, which might make the clock run fast when wound tightly or slow when the clock had wound down. In a spring-driven clock, the spring is mounted on a balance wheel, which turns back and forth in sync with the spring's oscillations, simultaneously rocking the pallet from side to side. The pallet controls the turning of the gears connected to the clock's face and maintains a steady transfer of power from the mainspring to the clock's counting mechanism. More innovation would come in 1504 when Peter Henlein invented the first portable timepiece.

Galileo Galilei (1565–1642) was a famous astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher. One of the groundbreaking concepts with which he is credited involves uniform motion. In the late sixteenth century Galileo noticed that a pendulum took the same amount of time to swing completely through a wide arc as it did a small arc. In 1641, he set out to invent a device to keep a pendulum in motion; he was aware of the value such a device might have in keeping time. Galileo died before completing the device, but Dutch mathematician and astronomer Chris Huygens would use Galileo's theories to invent the first pendulum clock in 1656. Huygens' clock had an error of less than one minute per day, the first time such accuracy had been achieved. He would later refine the clock to be accurate within ten seconds. The pendulum clock was usually built with a case for the pendulum. Such clocks were referred to as longcase clocks, floor clocks, and even coffin clocks because of their narrow, long construction. Such clocks would not be known as grandfather clocks until 1875. A song that year by Henry Clay Work called My Grandfather's Clock is believed to have rechristened the longcase clock as grandfather clocks in the minds of millions of Americans. The song reportedly sold a million copies.

As in England so also in the United States the first clocks appeared in churches and in town squares. A church clock in Boston was constructed in 1650, and the first public clock in New York City was built in 1716. Clockmakers were already in business at that time but still few in number. Significant mass production of clocks, however, would not really begin in America until after 1800. The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors notes that the main cost for manufacturers during this period was materials not labor. Clockmakers refined the miniaturization process of clocks and clock parts. Smaller clocks meant smaller costs and higher profits. Between 1840 and 1850 the average clock shrank in size approximately 30 percent. The small clocks, perfect for tables, shelves, and mantles, would be needed for new homes as the country's population expanded and moved into new territories. More than half a million brass shelf clocks were being manufactured by fifteen clockmakers in Connecticut alone in 1850. One in three homes in New England were thought to have a clock.

The country's economy soured after the Civil War. Many clockmakers who had rushed into the industry in the early nineteenth century were forced from the industry again. The market was left with just a handful of players, although these companies would dominate the industry for decades to come. The major players were the Ansonia Clock Company, the New Haven Clock Company, the Seth Thomas Clock Company, the Waterbury Clock Company, the William L. Gilbert Clock Company, and the E.N. Welch Manufacturing Company (eventually the Sessions Clock Company).

Clocks Become Precise

Until the mid-eighteenth century sailors could not calculate a ship's longitude (the angular distance east or west from the prime meridian of Greenwich, England). This created continual problems for the British, Dutch, and other seafaring countries. The British government in the Longitude Act of 1714 offered the equivalent of several million dollars in today's currency to anyone who could solve the problem. Astronomer and mathematician Gemma Frisius proposed a solution. A ship could record its longitude by recording the local time at the point of its departure and then compare the local time of the ship at noon, determined by measuring the highest point of the sun in the sky. The weight and pendulum-driven clocks at the time were incapable of the precision needed; also, such timekeepers could not be used at sea because of the ship's motion. Clock maker John Harrison invented the chronometer in 1735, an instrument capable of such precise measurement. Harrison built four different clocks, each more refined than its predecessor. In 1762 his last clock kept time to within two minutes' accuracy during a five-month voyage to Jamaica. A watch may be designated a chronometer only if it meets certain high timekeeping standards.

The clock industry continued to become more sophisticated. Clockmaker Levi Hutchins is credited with the first mechanical alarm clock in 1787. Hutchins, however, never patented the idea or had it mass-produced. French inventor Antoine Redier actually patented the first adjustable mechanical alarm clock in 1847. The first cuckoo clocks were produced in the Black Forest region of Germany in the middle of the eighteenth century. Cuckoo clocks are designed to look like a Bavarian home or chalet; the cuckoo appears from a small trap door and sounds its call as the clock is striking. Franz Anton Ketterer is credited with the invention of the clock, although historians have disputed this. Some historians also believe the first cuckoo clocks were built elsewhere in Germany, although the Black Forest region quickly became the center of production.

Siegmund Riefler's clock, in 1889, further advanced the pendulum clock with the invention of the nearly-free pendulum, accurate to a hundredth of a second a day. R.J. Rudd introduced a truly free pendulum clock in 1898. William Hamilton Shortt invented the clock that would take his name (the Shortt clock) in 1920. The clock has two pendulums, one that merely keeps time (the master) and the other to drive the time mechanism. The master pendulum is kept vibrating in a near vacuum. This clock is very accurate and was seen as being the pinnacle of timekeeping accuracy until the arrival of quartz clocks.

W.A. Marrison of Bell Laboratories built the first quartz clock in 1928. The room-sized clock was accurate to within one to two hundredths of a second per day. A quartz clock uses an electronic oscillator, which contains a crystal. An electronic field is applied to this crystal, which then vibrates. The vibration depends on the size of the crystal. The crystal then oscillates between 10,000 and 100,000 hertz (cycles per second). The high-frequency oscillation is converted to an alternating current, reduced to a frequency more convenient for time measurement, and then made to drive the motor of a synchronous clock or a digital display. Quartz clocks have no gears or escapements, which helps them maintain consistent frequency. Quartz clocks are very popular for several reasons. They keep time reliably. As well, the clock has fewer parts than a standard mechanical clock, which makes it inexpensive to mass-produce. Quartz watches would be produced in the 1960s. Seiko produced the first quartz wristwatch in 1969. Such watches sold well, and quickly threatened the dominant market share of mechanical watches.

Research on atomic clocks began in the 1930s, with the first clock built by the National Bureau of Standards in 1949. Atomic clocks are tuned to the frequency of the electromagnetic waves that are emitted or absorbed when certain atoms or molecules make the transition between two closely spaced, or hyperfine, energy states. Such clocks offer greater accuracy than other forms of clocks. They also are useful because the measured frequency is uniform across the same types of atoms. Thus, atomic clocks constructed and operated independently will measure the same time interval.

There are many types of atomic clocks although the most frequently used are cesium atomic, hydrogen maser, and the rubidium gas based. The first atomic clock in 1949 measured changes in ammonia molecules. The error between a pair of such clocks (the difference in indicated time if both were started at the same instant and later compared) was typically about one second in three thousand years. In 1955 the first cesium-beam clock (a device that uses as a reference the exact frequency of the microwave spectral line emitted by cesium atoms) was placed in operation at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, England. It is estimated that such a clock would gain or lose less than a second in three million years.

The standard in the United States is the NIST-F1 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This clock went into service in 1999 and should neither gain nor lose a second in 20 million years. A fountain atomic clock, the NIST F-1 consists of a 3-foot vertical tube inside a taller structure. It uses lasers to cool cesium atoms, forming a ball of atoms that lasers then toss into the air, creating a fountain effect. This allows the atoms to be observed for much longer than could be done with any previous clock. The NIST-F1 contributed to a group of clocks that establish Coordinated Universal Time, the official world time. Atomic clocks are used in a number of fields, including space navigation, global positioning services, and astronomy. The precision of the atomic clocks allowed the scientific community to define the second officially. In 1967, the Thirteenth General Conference on Weights and Measures formally defined a second as 9,192,631,770 vibrations of the cesium atom.

Daylight Savings Time

In the early 1900s, Europeans began to adopt summer time. They adjusted clocks by one hour every spring, moving the clock forward, and every autumn, moving the clock back by one hour. This became known as Daylight Savings Time in the United States. The plan was originally offered as an energy saving measure; more daylight meant less use of electric lights. It also no doubt played on public and personal concepts of productivity; the sun was still shining so there was still work to do. Ben Franklin is often erroneously credited with advocating Daylight Savings Time. In a humorous paper in 1784, Franklin urged the French to make maximum use of daylight hours to keep them from burning candles at night. He mentions nothing about resetting clocks, however. Daylight savings time was actually first proposed by William Willett in 1907. Daylight savings time was seen as a way to conserve energy during World War I. The practice also found support among many in the business community in the United States although there was (and is) less support for it among the public. President Wilson signed daylight savings time into law in 1918. It was repealed after World War I. No national legislation mandated daylight savings time until 1966; before the Uniform Time Act of 1966, the matter was left to the states. In 1973 Congress enacted the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act in response to the Arab oil embargo. Daylight saving time was extended to eight months rather than the normal six. This was believed to save the country 150,000 barrels of oil per day during the winter months. Daylight savings time started three weeks early as part of the Energy Act of 2005.

MARKET

The Watch, Clock, and Parts Manufacturing industry in the United States shipped product valued at $641 million in 2005. Of that total the industry exported $256 million in goods but imported $3,039 million so that apparent consumption (production less exports plus imports) came in at $4,324 million or $4.3 billion. These results indicate that clocks and watches used in the United States are largely an import market—and increasingly so. Figure 59 provides a perspective on this subject for the period from 2000 to 2005.

The graphic shows apparent consumption, imports, domestic shipments, and exports as curves. Consumption grew at the anemic rate of 0.2 percent per year, imports increased at 1.7 percent, exports declined at the rate of 3.8 percent yearly, and domestic shipments slid at a rate of 7 percent per year in the 2000 to 2005 period. Domestic production shrank from a $1.2 billion to a $641 million industry in this five year period, nearly halving. An overlaid bar graph shows how net domestic production (production less exports) shrank from 19.6 percent of consumption at its peak in 2001 down to 8.9 percent.

Clocks versus Watches

Based on global estimates for the market developed by the Japan Watch & Clock Association (JWCA), world production of watches in 2006 stood at 1.19 billion units whereas clock production was 485 million units, showing that viewed in units, watches represent a larger industry. When measured in dollar value however, the clock industry worldwide is bigger than the watch industry because the average value of every clock sold is slightly more than four times the value of each watch sold. Using dollar valuations, translated from JWCA's reporting in Yen, the 2006 global market was 63 percent clocks and 37 percent watches—at the production level a $7 billion industry. An approximation of retail sales may be estimated by doubling that number. Clock shipments in units were growing (at 3.7% per year in the period 2000 to 2006) whereas watch shipments were declining (1.1% per year).

Details on the U.S. production, available only for 2002, indicated that clock production accounted for 79.5 percent of shipments in that year, watches for 17.8 percent, and categories not specified by kind for 2.7 percent. To get some measure of the total U.S. market in clocks, we can apply these proportions to 2005 domestic shipments and global distribution as reported by JWCA to imports. Using that method, we obtain an estimate showing that clocks represented $2.8 billion of U.S. apparent consumption in 2005 or 65 percent of the producer level market for watches, clocks, and timepiece parts.

Top exporters of clocks to the United States were China, dominating the export market with 82 percent of shipments of U.S. imports. Japan, Germany, and Taiwan each represented 3 percent of imports, and Hong Kong represents 2 percent.

Popular types of clocks include grandfather, wall-mounted, and mantle clocks. Grandfather clocks refer to devices that stand on the floor, long case clocks to those at least six feet tall. The average price of a grandfather clock is approximately $1,600. Mantel clocks are relatively small, moveable clocks traditionally placed on a shelf or mantel above the fireplace. The form is believed to have first appeared in France in the 1750s. Such clocks, which might retail for between $150 and $500 each, are highly ornate and are made from any combination of metal, porcelain, and wood. The vast majority of clocks are inexpensive electrical devices, many battery operated.

KEY PRODUCERS/MANUFACTURERS

Howard Miller Clock Company

This company was founded in 1926. Howard Miller was originally a division of office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller. Herman Miller's son Howard spun off the division in 1937. These two companies are now separate entities. Originally the company only made mantel clocks. Grandfather clocks did not become a part of the product line until the 1960s. In 1989 the company began making curio cabinets as well as clocks.

Bulova

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Loews Corporation, this company is known as a manufacturer of watches, clocks, and jewelry. Bulova manufactured the first clock radio in 1928 and the first electric clock in 1931. Bulova manufactures clocks for public places such as train stations, office buildings, and airports. It also was highly influential in early automobile clocks. In 1952 the company developed the Accutron, an electronic timepiece that promised accuracy to within two seconds per day. The timing mechanisms would be used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in its programs. In 1959 Bulova was the first company to offer a one-year warranty on a clock radio. In 1968, it offered the first watches regulated by orbiting space satellites. In 2001 the company acquired the Wittenauer watch brand and in 2002 some assets from Heirloom, a grandfather clock maker.

Timex Corporation

Timex manufactures watches, clock radios, and alarm clocks. It was born out of the Waterbury Clock Company and its sister companies, Robert Ingersoll and the Waterford Watch Company. The company changed its name to the U.S. Time Company after World War II. The company introduced the Timex in 1950. The watch was immensely popular; more than one billion pieces have been sold since its introduction. Timex has approximately one-third of the global market and about the same in the United States, where it enjoys a 98 percent brand awareness among U.S. consumers. It was also one of the first U.S. watch firms to make and sell watches abroad (in the 1940s). In 1956 Timex released a series of highly memorable ads in which its watch was put through a series of tests to show its durability. The slogan "Timex Takes a Licking but Keeps on Ticking" is still remembered by many consumers. The company employs about 5,000 people and is owned by the Norwegian company Fred Olsen & Co.

Ridgeway Clocks

This compay began as The Gravely Furniture Company in 1926 and started producing grandfather clocks exclusively in 1960. This makes Ridgeway the oldest continuously produced grandfather clock brand in the United States. It is a division of Howard Miller Company, and is a producer of longcase clocks, mantle clocks, and wall clocks. Howard Miller acquired them in November 2004. The company claims several firsts, such as making the first grandfather clocks to chime "America the Beautiful," "God Bless America," and Westminster chimes. The company's facilities are located in Ridgeway, Virginia.

Colibri Group

Known primarily for making luxury lighters, Colibri also manufactures jewelry and timepieces. Its subsidiaries include Colibri, Seth Thomas Clock Company, Kremantz Jewelry, and Dolan-Bullock. The company acquired Seth Thomas Clocks in 2001. Seth Thomas is one of the oldest American clockmakers. The Sligh Furniture Company was founded in 1880 by Charles Sligh. The company found success as a maker of office furniture, clocks, and cabinetry. It sold its clock designs to Bulova in 2005. Graphic designer Paul Rowen and industrial hardware manufacturer Les Mandelbaum started Umbra Inc. in 1985. The company manufactures stylish trash cans, dish towels, and other home furnishings. The company's clock line has received attention for its style and use of unusual materials in construction. Salton Inc. manufactures the popular Big Ben clock in addition to grills, lighting products, toasters, juice extractors, bread makers, griddles, waffle makers, and buffet ranges/hotplates.

MATERIALS & SUPPLY CHAIN LOGISTICS

Ignoring very large clocks produced for buildings and churches and assembled on site, as products, clocks extend from furniture-size objects to small devices a user can easily hold in his or her hand. Heavy grandfather clocks encased in solid mahogany represent one extreme, cheap alarm clocks the other. All of these devices have in common that they have high value in relation to weight so that transportation costs do not play a major role in their distribution. They are all precision instruments; the most valuable clocks are high-tech devices using advanced digital and quartz technologies. With most products purchased in the United States making a passage across the Pacific or the Atlantic oceans, logistical systems supporting the industry are global. Raw materials in no way limit the production of clocks.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

Clocks are sold in specialized shops selling watches and jewelry, in electronics outlets, in furniture stores, in museum stores, over the Internet, in supermarkets, in department stores, in mass merchandising chains, and in drug stores—different channels carrying products at different price points. Approximately 58 percent of clocks were sold through mass merchandisers and warehouse clubs in the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Specialty stores (jewelers, furniture stores) represented 22 percent of the market. Catalogs were the third largest category, taking 11 percent of sales. Department stores had 2 percent of sales. Supermarket participation was approximately 1 percent, and all other outlets accounted for 6 percent of distribution. Clocks typically move from producers through wholesalers servicing these quite different retail categories.

KEY USERS

An estimate made in 1990 by the Clock Manufacturers and Marketing Association put six clocks into the average American home. Based on data provided by the National Association of Home Builders, houses have increased in size over time. In 1973 new single-family homes had around 950 square feet; 2006 homes averaged 2,460 square feet—suggesting that more clocks are being used by the public.

Packaged Facts, a research firm, conducted a study on clock ownership in 2006. The company released its findings on the clock radio segment. It claimed that this segment only represents one-quarter of industry sales; however, the findings certainly offer some insight into the overall market. According to Packaged Facts, an estimated 115.6 million adults owned clock radios in 2003. They were most commonly owned by those 25 to 44 years of age, people who have attended college, work full-time, have household incomes between $75,000-200,000 and have children between the ages of two and nine.

ADJACENT MARKETS

As objects of luxury or conspicuous consumption expensive display clocks compete with other similarly prized home ornaments like art and sculpture. As devices that simply announce the time, clocks compete with appliances (like stoves and microwave ovens) that display the time continuously, even in the dark. In the form of clock radios, the time-telling function is essentially merged with a product probably purchased because it brings music and news. In that many clocks typically reach homes as gifts, the products compete with alternative items of decoration or utility, like china, glassware, and small appliances. Although cheap clocks are typically simply tossed when they finally fail to keep time, expensive devices depend on the presence of a watch/clock repair industry which still linger in more or less hidden corners of the economy. Jewelry stores typically maintain services for watch and clock repair and see some traffic in the repair of expensive clocks.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Technology has helped timepieces refine their level of accuracy. The first clocks needed to be wound; later clocks were self-winding. The rise of mass production and miniaturization helped to usher in the pocket watch and wrist-watch. Electric clocks proved more reliable than mechanical clocks. The development of the microprocessor in the 1960s sparked the creation of LED (light emitting diode) and LCD (liquid crystal display) clocks and watches. Such clocks had digital faces (3:15 a.m., for example) rather than analog faces (the traditional 1-12 hours of a clock face). Deeper understanding of radio waves and atomic particles led to the creation of atomic clocks. Improvements in metallurgy and plastics have led to more durable clock escapements and components that resist rust, wear, and breaking.

Technology continues to drive the industry. Clock and watch manufacturers are now exploring new sources of power, such as sunlight and body heat. Some manufacturers are showing more interest in niche markets, such as clocks for the blind. American Innova offers an alarm clock for students that allows it to be preset for a different wake-up time for each day of the week.

CURRENT TRENDS

Market watchers have noticed a gradual decline in watch and clock sales. A significant reason is the proliferation of electronic devices that offer time displays: cellular phones, portable music players, pagers, and home and work computers. There are anecdotal reports of people deciding to stop wearing watches and relying on these devices as their primary timepieces. According to a Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council survey, those 18 to 24 years of age are those most likely to abandon their wristwatch in favor of their cell phone. Their interest in watches was not as timepieces but as fashion accessories. Their interest in watches was aimed largely at high-end luxury watches. Watchmakers may breathe a sigh of relief at the findings of this survey—fewer watches sold, but those sold are at higher prices. However, if young people never develop the habit of wearing a watch, it does offer a potentially gloomy prognosis for future watch industry growth.

The clock industry has been experiencing many of the same problems. People do use portable devices as their primary timepieces. At the same time what Packaged Facts calls the casino effect seems to be taking hold in some businesses. The casino effect describes the removal of clocks from public buildings and stores so consumers are unaware of how much time has passed (casinos have no visible clocks). It might, for example, persuade a book lover at the local Barnes & Noble or Borders to linger longer; more time in the store means the greater likelihood of the shopper spending money. Indiana's Bureau of Motor Vehicles removed clocks from 168 local license offices in 2005. The removal of clocks was to discourage clock-watching by employees and customers. The removal of clocks has been favored by other businesses to give chain stores a uniform appearance.

TARGET MARKETS & SEGMENTATION

The clock and watch industries remain poorly monitored and are in need of greater study. Industry players spent approximately $233 million in 2005 on advertising, according to Packaged Facts. Most of this spending was devoted to promoting watches. This spending has earned some wristwatch brands such as Timex, Seiko, Rolex, and Bulova, a high level of recognition. However, few clock makers have elevated their products to such a status. Those makers who have found this elevated status have done so largely because their brands have been successful in the wristwatch industry. Admittedly, high brand recognition in the industry may prove difficult as brand is a minor concern for the typical clock shopper. Fashion remains the primary impetus behind a clock choice.

Popular trends in 2007 according to clock makers include oversized and outdoor clocks, blonde woods, woven materials, and neutral colors. Infinity, Chaney, and Howard Miller are making oversized and outdoor clocks. Colibri Group has focused on oversized and theme clocks. Kirch Industrial makes high-end clocks made from steel and chrome. Clocks, finally, have also found new voices so that some announce the hour by bird song, fish sounds, dog barks, music, and even automotive honking.

RELATED ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS

American Watchmaker and Clockmaker Institute, http://www.awci.com

Antiquarian Horological Society, http://www.ahsoc.demon.co.uk

National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, http://www.nawcc.org

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bernard, Sharyn. "It's All in the Timing." HFN. 4 September 2006.

"Clocks and Watches." Encarta. 15 May 2007. Available from 〈http://escarta.msn.com.〉.

"Grandfather Clock Refers to a Floor-Standing …" Chicago Sun-Times. 23 January 2005.

"More Than a Third of Adults Bought Watches in 2003." Research Alert. 19 March 2004.

Shuster, William George. "Upscale Clocks on the Rise." Jewelers Circular Keystone. March 1993.

"Trade in Goods and Services." Annual Revisions for 2005. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. 9 June 2006. Available from 〈http://www.bea.gov/bea/di/home/trade.htm〉.

"Value of Shipments for Product Classes: 2005 and Earlier Years." Annual Survey of Manufactures. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. November 2006.

"Watch, Clock, and Part Manufacturing: 2002." 2002 Economic Census. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Economics and Statistics Administration. December 2004.

see also Watches