History of Smiths ClocksSamuel Smith founded a business of watchmakers and jewellers in 1851. His son, also Samuel, started on his own before he was 21 and established a business at 85 The Strand. He expanded as S. Smith and Son with other businesses in Strand, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly. Among other things the company developed a speedometer in 1904.
During the 1918 war Smiths were engaged in making shell fuses and a huge new factory was built at Cricklewood solely for this purpose.
After the war they supplied instruments and accessories to all the car makers and consolidated the company as the largest manufacturers in Europe of car and aviation instruments.
By 1926 Smiths were producing nearly 100,000 car clocks per year and were having to import the platform escapements.
AGF Smith took the decision to make his own escapements and formed the All British Escapement Co Ltd (ABEC).
A company called English clock and watch manufacturers Ltd of Coventry made the first electric car clock in England and this was marketed under the brand-name "Empire" it was fitted in Rolls-Royce's and many other cars . Smiths purchased the company in 1932. It continued for some time to manufacture stuff under its own name and with the trademarks "Empire" and "Astral" both later used by Smiths.
The decision to manufacture escapements and the success of ABEC started Smiths as clock and watch manufacturers.
A new company, Smiths English Clocks Ltd was formed in 1931 using Cricklewood as the main factory.
They gradually assimilated many other clock makers, including Enfield and The English Clock Co.
In some cases they continued to also trade under the former name so that, for example, Enfield clocks and Smiths clocks may at times be identical, using the same movements, cases etc.
Striking and chiming clocks were also quickly introduced and the first of these was made under the "Empire" name.
Smiths produced their own design chiming clock in about 1935.
From 1939 to 1945 the Smiths factories mainly worked for the Armed Forces but small quantities of clocks were still produced for the domestic market throughout the war.
After the war, with government encouragement , a factory was built at Carfin near Glasgow to make alarm clocks.
By 1947 the one millionth alarm clock had been produced and two years later a figure of 4 million was reached. In September 1964 the 38th million alarm clock was presented to Edward Heath.
Smiths ceased to manufacture car clocks and high-grade watches in 1970 and popular watches in 1980. The 1980s saw the decline of British clock manufacture due to lower cost products offered by Germany and Japan.
This information kindly provided by http://www.smiths-clocks.co.uk.
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