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Smiths trace their ancestry back to a craftsman named Samuel Smith who in 1851 opened a shop in Newington Causeway, London, where he made and sold watches, clocks and precision instruments

Samuel had a son, another Samuel, who presumably learnt the business from his father
Samuel junior opened his own business at 85 Strand and later had other premises at 9 Strand, Trafalgar Square and 68 Piccadilly
In 1899 he turned his business into a private limited company, S. Smith & Son Ltd

Samuel junior's son, Sir Allan Gordon-Smith, joined him as Manager at 9 Strand in 1903 and laid the foundation of the vast Smiths organisation of the future, leading the company towards the supply of accessories for the then developing motor industry

Smiths' earliest connection with the motor trade was the supply of watches for fitting to cars
Then when it became obvious that people using the new horseless carriage would want to know how fast they were going and how far they had been, the Smiths Speedometer was designed in 1904
The business' development of the first British speedometer proved to be the foundation on which the automotive manufacturing business was then built, branching into aircraft instruments as flight was developed

In July 1914 a new company was formed under the name S. Smith & Sons (Motor Accessories) Ltd., to take over the motor accessory business of S. Smith and Son Ltd. and this became the main company of the group which eventually grew to become Smiths Industries Ltd

The original company, S Smith and Sons Ltd., continued as jewellers and clock and watch makers and the Shentons, in their book "Collectable Clocks", refer to a number of handsome longcase clocks dated c1900 with the S Smith and Sons name
I understand the business ceased in 1930 and the premises were taken over by Bravingtons, the retail jewellers

In later years the name S Smith and Sons Ltd. appears on a spare parts leaflet for Smiths clocks

When the early expansion of the business was taking shape in 1914, the war, which saw the start of the flying machine and the mechanisation of the land forces, brought specialised production problems and throughout the war the company increased its production of vehicle accessories and manufactured fuses and aircraft instruments
A factory was built at Cricklewood

Towards the end of the war Smiths purchased Trier & Martin, which had a small lighting and starting business, and another concern making air-speed indicators
Smiths also manufactured sparking plugs for the Air Ministry under licence

In 1919 Smiths acquired the issued share capital of M.L. Magneto Syndicate Ltd., a manufacturer of patented magnetos
In the latter part of 1927 Smiths made two important acquisitions, viz. the whole of the share capital of K.L.G. Sparking Plugs Ltd. (giving control of the K.L.G. plug business) and 75 per cent of the share capital of Ed. Jaeger (London) Ltd
Jaeger was a manufacturer of clocks, watches, speedometers and other instruments and held exclusive licences to make some of these goods
In 1928 Smiths were producing nearly 100,000 car clocks per year and were importing the platform escapements for these

Allan Gordon-Smith formed the "All British Escapements Co Ltd " (A.B.E.C) to manufacture escapements for "Smiths" and "Jaeger" car clocks
Smiths was the majority shareholder - the other shares were held by the French and Swiss interests which had retained shareholdings in the English Jaeger company
Swiss foremen were installed to teach the manufacturing technique
Although the company was formed in 1928, production did not start until 1932

From 1932 until 1945 A.B.E.C. operated as a manufacturing unit alongside ED Jaeger (London) Ltd {renamed British Jaeger Instruments Ltd. in 1931} in the latter's Chronos Works, North Circular Road, N.W.2, making escapements and components for domestic and car clocks and various other instruments

Smiths' development as a supplier of components to the motor vehicle industry reached a turning point in 1930
In that year the company sold all the assets of its Lighting, Starting and Ignition Department and the whole of the share capital of M.L. Magneto Syndicate Ltd. to Joseph Lucas Ltd., and the two companies made a trading agreement under which each party undertook not to make certain products which were regarded as within the other's field of interest

In 1931 Smiths decided to enter the domestic clock market and formed a new company, Smiths English Clocks Ltd., as the Clock and Watch division of S Smith & Sons (Motor Accessories) Ltd
This is the point taken as the start of "Smiths Clocks" for the purposes of this book because this is when they began to manufacture domestic clocks in quantity
Moreover they set out to produce these clocks at a price that the average householder could afford

S Smith & Sons (Motor Accessories) was at this time the main company in the Smiths group of companies and their business developed both in the motor vehicle field and outside it

Smiths began to make automatic pilots for aircraft and, through the acquisition of a majority interest in Henry Hughes & Sons Ltd., entered the field of marine instruments

During the war from 1939 to 1945, Smiths' production expanded
There was a demand for motor, aircraft and marine instruments for the Services and the production of industrial instruments, hitherto imported, was begun
Fuses were also manufactured

In 1944 a number of changes were made in Smiths' organisation
The name of the principal company was changed from S Smith & Sons (Motor Accessories) to S. Smith & Sons (England) Ltd. and four new subsidiary selling companies were set up
These were Smiths Motor Accessories Ltd., Smiths Aircraft Instruments Ltd., Smiths Industrial Instruments Ltd., and Smiths English Clocks Ltd

In 1958 Smiths Aviation and Marine was created

In 1961 a separate aviation division was formed

In 1966 the company changed its name again, from S. Smith & Sons (England) Ltd. to Smiths Industries Ltd

In 1977 Smiths Industries made a further change to the Clock & Watch Division by forming two separate companies, "Smiths Industries Clock Company " and "Smiths Industries Watch Company"
This was reported in HJ Aug 1977

Manufacture of clocks and watches ceased in 1979 and in 1983 Smiths withdrew from the motor industry

In 1987 Smiths acquired the US avionics businesses of Lear Siegler Holdings Corp and their 'major position' with Boeing
The end result was that by the late 1980s aerospace had evolved into Smiths' major core business

To bring the story up to date, in late 2000 Smiths Industries merged with the T I Group and as a result of that merger the company name was changed to Smiths Group Plc

Please note that this brief history concentrates on Smiths as manufacturers of Domestic Clocks

The parent company had enormous ramifications (summarised to some extent in the Origins Chapter above) but this history is only concerned with clocks

In 1931 Smiths, then called S Smith and Sons (Motor Accessories) Ltd., decided to enter the domestic clock market and formed a new company, Smiths English Clocks Ltd., as the Clock and Watch division of S Smith & Sons (Motor Accessories) Ltd. with Cricklewood as the main factory

Smiths were one of the first companies to produce synchronous electric clocks
These were put on the market towards the end of 1931
It seems that Smiths formed a subsidiary company called "Synchronous Electric Clocks Ltd" to produce these clocks as the first models are so marked

In 1932 Smiths purchased a company called "English Clock and Watch Manufacturers Ltd" of Coventry and thus acquired the famous trade names Astral and Empire which they subsequently used extensively

Smiths were one of the first to produce a synchronous alarm clock, shown in advertisements in 1934, which they named the "Callboy"

In 1934, Smiths bought out the shareholders of the "Enfield Clock Company"
That purchase was unusual in that the shareholders were replaced but the directors and work force were retained and production at the Edmonton factory under the Enfield name continued until about 1950

The Smith's 8 day calotte clock made its debut at the British Industries Fair in 1934
Prior to this date calottes had been exclusively of foreign manufacture

Also in 1934, Smiths introduced the "Batriclock" which was intended for areas where the synchronous clock could not be used

This was followed in 1935 by the "Synfinity", which Smiths described as "the clock that never stops"
They said it was "the remarkable combination of a synchronous electric movement with the essential elements of a fine precision lever escapement"
If the electric supply failed the clock would run for up to six hours and rewind when the power returned
Apparently the synchronous motor also corrected the mechanical time train at intervals

Also around 1935, Smiths produced a synchronous electric chiming clock

From 1937 the trade name "Sectric" appears on Smiths electric clocks

1937 also saw the introduction by Smith's of a calotte clock with an alarm movement

During the war (1939 to 1945) Smiths' production expanded
There was a demand for motor, aircraft and marine instruments for the Services and the production of industrial instruments, hitherto imported, was begun
Fuses for shells were also manufactured

In 1944 a major regrouping of the whole Smiths organisation was carried out
The name of the principal company was changed to S Smith & Sons (England) Ltd with four divisions
------Smiths Motor accessories Ltd
------Smiths Industrial instruments Ltd
------Smiths Aircraft Instruments Ltd and
------Smiths English Clocks Ltd

After the regrouping the Clock and Watch division of the company, "Smiths English Clocks Ltd.", consisted of the following main companies
------A.B.E.Co. Ltd
------Enfield Clock Co. (London) Ltd
------English Clock Systems Ltd
------British Precision Springs Ltd
------J.E.V. Winterbourne Ltd
------Pullars Instruments Ltd
------United Kingdom Clock Co. Ltd
------Clock Components Ltd
------Anglo-Celtic Watch Co. Ltd. (Associated)

At the end of the war, in 1945, the Cricklewood factory returned to clock production with new models of Synchronous clocks and a factory at Carfin (near Glasgow) was producing an alarm clock selling at less than a pound

Enfield had been taken over in 1934 and allowed to continue production under its own name but in 1949 production of Enfield "strikes " was moved from the Enfield factory at Edmonton to the Smiths factory at Ystradgynlais in Wales
The "chimes" production was moved a year or so later and Enfield ceased to be an entity, becoming just part of the Smiths Group, the only distinguishing feature being that movements from the Ystradgynlais factory were marked "Smiths Enfield"

A new factory for the manufacture of alarm clocks was opened at Wishaw in 1951 as Carfin had become overcrowded

Mechanical Clocks

In 1956 Smiths offered clocks with the new "floating balance" movement invented by Hettich in Germany and licensed to Smiths
In 1960 they offered a smaller version to their own design, which was widely used as regulation was easy and precise
The floating balance had advantages over older escapements
It is robust and less sensitive to disturbance, as for example when dusting, or to being out of level
In 1970 they introduced a range of clocks using the Tensator movement in which a special spring provides constant torque and potentially better timekeeping

Battery Clocks

Historical note - In 1953 Leon Hatot of Paris had patented the use of the transistor in a pendulum clock
The patents also covered balance controlled movements
The system was licensed to other makers and in Europe most development used the principle of a balance controlled movement with fixed coil and moving magnet
The alternative, a moving coil with fixed magnet, was generally dismissed as being too complex
In 1958 and 1959 Smiths patented moving coil clocks incorporating transistors, but did not put any models on the market until 1962 when they announced the "Sectronic", which had a moving coil movement
This movement had three hairsprings which served to carry current to the coils
Over the next few years they re-designed the movement and introduced the Sectronic Mark II in 1969
Both the Mark I and the Mark II were complex and difficult to manufacture
One report indicates that production of these movements ceased in 1970
In 1972 they announced a battery clock with a much simpler moving magnet and fixed coil design, as used in Europe
This may be the Mark IV, which is fully described in the 1973 catalogue
I also have a leaflet, issued after the company name change in 1977, describing a "Jewelled Electronic Battery Movement" which appears similar to the Mark IV but has a different arrangement of the circuit board
In May 1971 Smiths launched the Tuning Fork battery clock and the June 1971 issue of the Horological Journal has a detailed article on the movement
The movements were in fact made by Jeco of Tokyo who licensed Smiths as sole UK agents
I understand that Jeco themselves manufactured under a license from Horstmann-Clifford Magnetics of Bath UK
The first tuning fork clocks produced had a Smiths sticker over the JECO name, but later movements had "Smiths Industries Limited. Clock & Watch Division" moulded into the movement cover

Quartz Controlled Clocks

Historical note - Quartz controlled clocks were produced in Germany in 1971 by Staiger and Junghans
Smiths announced their own design of quartz movement in mid 1975 with production reaching 12,500 units per week in June 1977 (per HJ sep 77), but this movement does not appear to have remained in production for long as later clocks of Smiths manufacture have quartz movements produced by other makers in Europe

The latter half of the 1970's saw the decline of the clock and watch manufacture by all European and British companies as they were unable to compete with lower cost products offered by makers in the Far East

Smiths ceased to produce clocks for the domestic market in 1979

Company name changes

Circa 1955 the name Smiths English Clocks Ltd. was changed to "Smiths Clocks and Watches Ltd"
In 1966 the name of the principal company of the Smiths group was changed from "S Smith & Sons (England) Ltd" to "Smiths Industries"
In 1977 Smiths carried out another reorganisation of the clock and watch division, forming two separate companies, "Smiths Industries Clock Co" and "Smiths Industries Watch Co"

The variations of the company name provide a useful guide to the date of a clock