Clock makers · United States

William L. Gilbert Clock Company

A Winsted maker that built its name on affordable clocks, kept producing through World War II with cases made of molded paper, and closed in the early 1960s.

By David Ray · clocks.fyi

From partnerships to a company of his own

William L. Gilbert started in clockmaking in 1828, when he founded his first business with his brother-in-law, George Marsh, according to Iowa State University Museums. About 1838 he went into partnership with Chauncey Jerome, whose brass movements went into Gilbert's mantel clocks.

In Winsted, the Connecticut Mills survey records, Gilbert and Lucius Clarke started a clock shop in the 1840s on a site that had been used for clockmaking as early as 1807. Gilbert gained full control of the business in 1866. After a fire destroyed the shop in 1870 he built a new plant, and in 1871 he incorporated the business as the William L. Gilbert Clock Co.

Clocks for every pocket

Iowa State sums up the company's approach in one word: economy. Gilbert made affordable wall and shelf clocks for ordinary buyers, both spring-driven and weight-driven, with cases running from bronzed metal with ornate feet to oak and rosewood. Kitchen clocks and steeple clocks were part of the line, and Iowa State's own collection includes a Gilbert clock called the Prince, from about 1880 to 1890. The Lakeville Journal places the start of Gilbert's clockmaking in Winsted itself in the 1820s, so accounts of the earliest years vary.

The factory kept growing. A movement factory went up in 1872, and the last mill building was added in 1904. Connecticut Mills links that period to a workforce of about 500 and output of roughly 2,000 clocks a day, though its own records date the 500-worker figure to 1910. By the 1900s, Iowa State notes, Gilbert had also become a leading maker of alarm clocks.

Iowa State counts Gilbert among the leading Connecticut clock producers of the 19th century. On the Winsted site, the four-story case mill, where the wooden cases were made, dates from 1870, and the movement factory stood just to its south.

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Paper clocks and World War II

In 1940, ConnecticutHistory.org reports, the William L. Gilbert Clock Corporation installed machinery that molded clock cases from papier-mache. The timing proved lucky. When wartime restrictions on metal forced most Connecticut clockmakers to stop, Gilbert was one of the few allowed to keep making clocks. Most of the state's other clockmakers used metal cases.

The molded cases saved brass, aluminum, bronze, steel and phosphor, and cut the clocks' weight by 47.5 percent, which also lowered shipping costs. Iowa State adds that Gilbert kept making alarm clocks through the war because they were considered a necessity.

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Identifying and dating a Gilbert clock

A Gilbert clock can carry the maker's name in two places, on the movement and on a label in the case. A walnut shelf clock made between 1871 and 1900, now at The Henry Ford, is stamped Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Co., Winsted, Conn USA on its front plate and has a back label reading manufactured by Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Co., Winsted, Conn.

Since that company name dates from the 1871 incorporation, a clock carrying it was made in 1871 or later; clocks from Gilbert's earlier partnerships would carry different names. A molded papier-mache case points to 1940 or later. For the in-between decades, model names on labels can be checked against reprinted Gilbert catalogs.

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What became of Gilbert

The company closed in the early 1960s, more than a century after Gilbert's first clock venture. A fire in 1975 destroyed several of the Winsted buildings, including the 1872 movement factory, and in 1997 the two that remained were converted into housing. The Winchester Historical Society displays Gilbert clocks and memorabilia, the Lakeville Journal reports. A National Register application for the factory site was submitted in 1984.

Questions people ask

How old is my Gilbert clock?

If the label or movement says Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Co., it was made in 1871 or later, after the company was incorporated under that name. A molded papier-mache case suggests 1940 or later.

Is the Gilbert Clock Company still in business?

No. The William L. Gilbert Clock Company closed in the early 1960s. Two of its Winsted factory buildings survive as housing.

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