Whitehall Hammond Synchronous Movement Art Deco Clock in Onyx and Bronze. Round clockface and surrounding green mineral, bookended by beautiful bronze eagles on the green onyx base. Information stamped on the back, including "Made in the U.S.A." 

Condition: Some signs of repair. 

Size: 16 x 3 1/2 x 10 in. 

#4399 . 

In 1928 the Hammond Clock Company of Chicago began producing electric clocks. Laurens Hammond, who was most famous for the invention of the Hammond organ, modeled his design directly after Henry Warren’s Telechron clock, creating a synchronous movement with a unique starting knob on the back to restart the motor. Within a year he had developed a close association with several prominent jewelers and designers in an effort to make the most luxurious Art Deco clocks in history. Whitehall Jewelers, started by Ira Marks, was his favorite company to build the cases, and Marks introduced Hammond to Joseph B. Hirsch, a Romanian immigrant who had recently expanded his bronze foundries from New York into Illinois. The partnership between the three of them was short-lived, but they achieved their goal, producing some of the most exquisite and opulent clocks of the 1930s. These clocks were not cheap, though, with sturdy bronze figures adorning their elaborate and sometimes abstract shapes, and although all three companies survived the Great Depression, Hirsch closed down during World War II. Hammond quit making clocks in 1941, pivoting solely to building organs from then on. Whitehall Jewelers went through an endless parade of name changes and new owners throughout the 20th Century, but for a brief moment the Whitehall Hammond synchronous movement clocks reigned supreme, and are highly sought by collectors today for their special place in the history of design and their unrivaled beauty.

Some signs of repair.