E. Howard & Co.
While most American factories chased cheap clocks, this Boston firm built the precision regulators and tower clocks that kept time for banks, telegraph offices and town halls.
Howard and Davis
Edward Howard was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, on October 6, 1813, and learned his trade as an apprentice to the clockmaker Aaron Willard. Britannica names Aaron Willard, while Iowa State University Museums specifies Aaron Willard Jr.; either way, he trained within the Massachusetts family that produced the banjo clock. Britannica says he had a clockmaking business going in Roxbury by 1840, and in 1842 he went into partnership in Boston with David P. Davis. As Howard and Davis the pair made high-grade wall clocks.
From about 1843 the firm also built tower clocks, with Luther Stephenson involved in that side of the work, according to a history compiled by Princeton's tower clock team. Iowa State University Museums adds that the business turned out an unusual range of other goods over the years, including sewing machines, fire engines and precision balances.
Clocks, watches and a run of name changes
Davis left in 1857 and the firm became E. Howard and Company. Howard had already been involved in watchmaking: Britannica says that around 1850 he and Aaron Dennison planned a watch factory built on machine-made, interchangeable parts, a venture that became the Boston Watch Company and failed in 1857. Iowa State says Howard and Charles Rice then formed a watch company in 1858, and Howard bought Rice out at the end of that year.
The clock and watch businesses merged on March 24, 1861, as the Howard Clock and Watch Company. That firm failed in 1863, and a new Howard Watch and Clock Company was formed on October 1, 1863. A joint stock corporation succeeded it on December 1, 1881. Sources differ on Howard's role at that point: Iowa State says he sold his interests and retired, giving both 1881 and 1882, while Britannica says he formed the new company in 1881. He died in Roxbury on March 5, 1904.
Precision for a world run on time
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History describes E. Howard as one of a few American firms making finely finished precision clocks at a time when most American clocks were cheap mass-market products.
Its example is a large wall regulator made in 1874, with a mahogany and burl walnut case and electrical contacts that broke a telegraph circuit every half minute, minute, five minutes and hour. It sent Philadelphia time to subscribers of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, who could use the signal to set their own clocks. Regulators like it timed scientific observations and served as the standard for checking other clocks and watches.
Accurate, shared time mattered more and more in those years. The Smithsonian notes that before 1883 towns set their clocks by the sun, producing hundreds of local times, and that railroads used about fifty regional standard times by the 1880s. In November 1883 most North American railroads adopted zone-based standard time, the origin of today's time zones.
The tower clock side kept pace. The Princeton history records, for example, a No. 2 striking tower clock installed at the Eddington Industrial School in Pennsylvania in 1888.
See also: the time standards that replaced local sun time on OnlineClock.app.
Dating a Howard clock by its name
Because the firm changed names several times, the maker's name on a dial, movement or label is a good first clue. Howard and Davis points to the years from 1842 to 1857, E. Howard and Co. to 1857 or later, and the various Howard Clock and Watch names to the 1860s onward.
Watches need extra care. Iowa State notes that the Howard name for watches was sold to the Keystone Watch Case Co. in 1903, when Howard's own regular watchmaking stopped, so a Howard watch made after that date came from a different business. For clocks and regulators, a specialist or the NAWCC library can help match a model to its catalog.
Decline and revival
The clock side was reorganized as Howard Clock Products on November 5, 1934, and kept going largely on precision gear work for government contracts. It built its last tower clock in 1964. Dana J. Blackwell revived clock production in 1975, but the firm was sold in 1977 and later went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Iowa State University Museums says the clockmaking business was then sold to private investors who continue to offer Howard clocks; we could not confirm who makes or sells Howard clocks as of 2026.
See also: public and outdoor clocks today on OnlineClock.app.
Questions people ask
How old is my E. Howard clock?
Start with the maker's name. Howard and Davis clocks date from 1842 to 1857, while E. Howard and Co. marks belong to 1857 or later. A catalog or specialist can then match the model and narrow the date.
Did E. Howard make watches too?
Yes. Howard was involved in watchmaking from the late 1850s, but the Howard watch name was sold to the Keystone Watch Case Co. in 1903, when the original firm's regular watch production ended.
Is E. Howard still in business?
The historic firm made its last tower clock in 1964. Clockmaking was revived in 1975, and after a 1977 sale and a later bankruptcy the clock business was sold to private investors, according to Iowa State University Museums. We could not confirm its status as of 2026.