page_title: Chelsea Clock Company
section_title: The Early Years
hierarchical_section_title: Chelsea Clock Company / History / The Early Years
caption_attribution_description: English: Chelsea Clock Company, Chelsea Massachusetts
context_page_description: The Chelsea Clock Company is an American clock manufacturing company founded in 1897. Clocks produced by Chelsea Clock Company have been found in the White House, on US Naval Ships, and in homes and offices around the world. The company continues to build and repair clocks at their corporate headquarters in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
context_section_description: Early production centered on pendulum models and brass-plated, non-striking marine clocks. Pendulum clocks, with their fine mahogany cabinets, often took months to produce. The company produced its marine clocks entirely in-house, so these created revenue far more quickly.
  Under Pearson's guidance, Chelsea made numerous product design improvements, many of which it patented. These included the design for a ship's bell clock having a fully encased chime and striking mechanism, patented in 1900. By 1903, the company also produced clocks for automobiles, soon counting Rolls Royce, Packard, and Studebaker among its customers. It wasn't until 1906, however, that the company earned its first profit. The United States Navy was by then ordering Chelsea's marine clocks in increasing quantities, leading other military branches to follow their lead. In 1907 and 1908, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered more than 100 clocks for its offices throughout the country. This motivated Pearson to establish the Boston Clock Company, essentially a separate brand for clocks and related instruments—including an artillery time fuse—the company manufactured to meet government standards.
  From 1906 until the late 1920s, Chelsea's business grew profitably under Pearson's guidance. In 1928, however, he died following a brief illness. He wanted William Neagle, who he had hired 26 years earlier, to have first option on buying the company, which Neagle soon did.
caption: Chelsea Clock Company (1897 - 2015)
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