The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-09-26
,stomers of the Waterbury Clock
Co.
 Robert Fl. IngcrsolI 6 Brother

himSelf, to some degree at leaSt, he brought his brother, Charles H., on from Michigan to work with him. In efforts to increase his dis tribution, he established mail or- der department and issued & cata- log featuring dollar items. He also instituted a chain of six retail stores throughout New York city. About 1892, in seeking additional items for his mail order depart- ment, he considered the possibility of selling a pocket watch at low price for which item he felt there was tremendous market. In in- vestigating the possibilities of pur- chasing such watch, he discovered that both the New Haven Clock Co. and the Waterbury Clock Co. were making clock-watches but the model produced by the Water bury Clock Co. was the smaller. Purchasing a quantity of 1000, he offered them to his mail order trade in the 1892 catalog at $1 each and the sales resulting permitted the placing of an additional order for 10000. Tn 1893 watch was designed for the Worlds Fair held at Chicago. It was a large thick timepiece, very different from the thin 12 size watch produced espe- cially for the 1893 Worlds Fair.
 The success attained in the sale of watches led the Robert H. Ing ersoll and Bros. to contract for the entire watch output of the Water bury Clock Co. This was. an ideal arrangement as the Ingersoll Bros. had great sales ability while the Clock Co. had the technical skill and ability to produce accurate timepieces.
 Selling Ingersoll Watch
 When Robert H. Ingersoll & Bro. initiated sales of the Inger- soil watch, as 1t was now known through regular channels of distri- countered. There was no demand on the part of the general public for Ingersoll watches and jobbers and dealers were reluctant to stock them. Jewellers in particular felt that the new watch was not of a type to fit in with their high grade merchandise and they were par ticularly fearful of the timekeep- ing qualities of the watches. To overcome this resistance, the com pany as soon as it's finances per- mitted, initiated campaign of ad- vertising to develop consumer de- mand and sought to eliminate any complaints of quality by the inclu- sion. of broad guarantee with each watch.
 A vrA~t4A nfI years was reduced considerably in size 50 that by 1901, IS size watch es were being produced and by 1908 16, 12 and even 6 size watches were being manufactured. In the latter year Robert H. Ingersoll x Bro., while continuing to secure all non-jeweled watches from the Wa terbury Clock Co.,, decided to go into the manufacture of low priced jeweled watches and purchased the factory of the Trenton Watch Co. Six years later, in 1914, they ex- banded their jewell watch manu- featuring capacity by taking over tho factory of the New England Watch Co. at Waterbury. While the sale of jeweled watches was n sizable portion of total sales, tlic business was not particularly pro- fitable and 1t might be said that while the abilities of Robert II. In- gcrsoll & Bro. were extremely high as far as selling is concerned. as manufacturers they did not do 50 well. By 1922, following the de- precision of 1921, the company was found to be in financial difficulties and a trustee in bankruptcy was appointed. At the sale, the Water bury Clock Co. took over all the as- sets of Robert IT. Ingersoll & Bro., including the rights to trade marks and good will, and in 1880 estab- lished a selling organization Cor the distribution of watches and clocks known as the Ingersoll- Waterbury Co.
 In 1928, realizing the part that electricity would play in time-keep- ing, self-winding electric clocks were designed and produced. These were essentially spring clocks, the main spring of which was wound at regular intervals by an electric motor. By 1890 the frequency of the current throughout the larger part of the United States had been regulated to 60 cycles, permitting the manufacture of synchronous electric clocks and that year the company began their production.
 At the present time there are six clock companies producing alarm clocks in quantities of which five arc located in Connecticut and four of these. including the Waterbury Clock Co.,, are ins the Naugatuck valley. Of the four large prodnc- CTS of low price watches, three gre located in Connecticut and two of these, including the Waterbury Clock Co. are in the Naugatuck valley.
 In the production of watches. Tho Waterbury Clock Co. stands first, having made. over 100 mill lion watches in the course of 40 years. It is the second largest pro- ducer of alarm clocks. The plant is capable of an output of approx innateiy 10000 watches per day al- though this figure could be ad. vanced to O,00O if necessary. The ordfyary volume of alarm clock production is g,0O0 pieces per day and this could be increased to T.