Self Winding Clock Company
[1] Based in New York City, the company was one of the first to power its clocks with an electric motor instead of winding by hand.
A patented clock mechanism automatically rewinds the main spring each hour by the small electric motor.
He designed a small electric motor and matched it with a conventional clock mechanism.
In 1886, Pond patented a correction device that used an electric current to activate a mechanical lever attached to the clock movement.
This correction attachment would move the clock hands precisely to the hour (Patent No.
The original SWCC factory was located at 205 Willoughby Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.
The SWCC factory remained in Brooklyn until they moved to 75 Varick Street, New York at some time in the 1950s, to apparently make room for expansion at the Pratt Institute.
In addition to doing the clock manufacturing in Brooklyn, SWCC had business offices at various locations in New York City throughout its long history.
The most expensive clocks could be equipped with the higher grade movement made by E. Howard.
The success of SWCC depended upon the clocks being reliably wound every hour without failure.
Over a span of about 15 years, the design of the SWCC movements went through a series of modifications aimed at improving reliability.
In this design, the motor proved to be much more reliable and was now an integral part of the movement rather than added on below the clock works.
[8] Its subject matter was for the transmission of time signals over Western Union telegraph lines to synchronize clocks made by SWCC.
SWCC was paid a percentage of the rental fee for providing clocks for WU customers.
