1943 Telechron/G.E. Bakelite and Glass War Alarm. Marked on the back. 

Size: 4 1/4 x 2 1/4 x 4 1/2 in. 

Henry Ellis Warren initially founded The Warren Clock Company in 1912 in Ashland, Massachusetts, and it became Warren Telechron in 1926 when he switched exclusively to selling the synchronous electric clock. As early as 1917 General Electric had acquired a strong interest in Telechron, realizing the economic potential of Warren’s invention, and when he retired in 1943 General Electric gradually absorbed Telechron entirely into its operations, closely associated with the Revere Clock Company division of Herschede. Telechron became the “Clock and Timer Division” of GE in the mid 1940s, but declined in the 1950s, mainly because batteries had become much more long-lived and reliable. GE tried to respond to the declining market for Warren’s technology by producing cheaper, less solidly manufactured clocks with plastic replacing bakelite, wood, and glass, along with much less durable S rotors used instead of the H rotor. GE sold the last of its former Telechron plants in 1979, and the business division closed permanently in 1992, but Telechron continues to this day to exist as a manufacturer of electric timers in Leland, North Carolina as well as a spin-off research lab called Electric Time Company in Medfield, Massachusetts, the only remaining maker of movements for post and tower clocks in the United States.

All items are sold AS IS. Lot and condition details are for descriptive purposes only. Sarasota Estate Auction is not responsible for errors and/or omissions of condition. The absence of a condition report does not imply that the lot is perfect or free from wear, flaws, or characteristics of age. Please bid according to your own expertise, or request any additional information and/or photographs you deem necessary.