The tale of the underdog: Canada’s earliest clock companies
Their time was limited
A selection of clocks from Canada’s early clock companies will be offered in Miller & Miller’s February 8th Canadiana auction.
Trading with the giant next door has historically been both a challenge and an opportunity for Canada. Goods tied to national identities and the bottom line, for both American and Canadian manufacturers, have been going back and forth for over 150 years. The impact of tariffs (taxes on imports and exports) levied by governments to protect their country’s businesses and industries is not always clear.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariff threat on all imported items coming from Canada is just the latest example in the annals of trade. Yet nearly 150 years ago Canadian Minister of Finance Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley imposed a 35 per cent tariff on all clocks coming from the United States (The Hamilton Clock Company was so grateful that it named one of its models “The Tilley” in his honour). Some things never change. It’s not known how much of an impact the tariff had, since there are no records, no sales sheets, no catalogues. But what is known is the companies closed their doors in short order, despite producing beautiful, well-made clocks with great skill.
The story of the rise and fall of Canada’s first clock companies is a story of the underdog. The Canada Clock Company (Whitby, Ontario) launched in 1872 but was belly-up by 1876. That same year The Hamilton Clock Company purchased the ill-fated firm’s equipment and set up shop in Hamilton, Ontario. It was bankrupt by 1880. The Canada Clock Company (Hamilton, Ontario) emerged shortly after, but by 1884 no trace of a Canadian clock industry could be found. American manufacturers had the equipment, the scale and the ability to corner the market and outperform and out-produce their Canadian competition.
Pictured above is the building that housed the clock companies in Hamilton, Ontario before their demise in the late 1880s. The building was demolished in 1971. Photo source: The Canada and Hamilton Clock Companies by Jane Varkaris and James E. Connell.
This ad ran in the Globe newspaper on November 7, 1885 to announce the judicial sale of the Canada Clock Company’s assets. Photo source: The Canada and Hamilton Clock Companies by Jane Varkaris and James E. Connell.
“There were eight companies in Connecticut alone mass-producing clocks at the time,” points out Allan Symons, founder and manager of the award-winning Canadian Clock Museum in Deep River, Ontario, the country’s one and only clock museum. Opened in 2000, the non-profit museum has been Symons’ retirement project and now boasts over 700 books and thousands of Canadian-made clocks. (“I’m 81 now, but still ticking,” he jokes.)
When the Hamilton Clock Company launched in 1876 a prominent trade journal interviewed the factory floor manager, suggesting “I presume your hands are mostly Americans, as I do not suppose you could find Canadians skilled in this branch of industry”, to which the floor manager replied, “On the contrary, out of fifty hands employed by us we only have two Americans.” Regardless, the company was closed within four years.
Back in the 1870s, before electricity use became widespread, the importance of having a reliable way of tracking time in the home cannot be overstated. “Getting a first clock was a special thing,” says Symons. “But over time, a lot of them were also thrown out, so that adds to their rarity.”
There wouldn’t be another attempt to produce clocks in Canada for nearly two decades until Swiss immigrant Arthur Pequegnat re-tooled his bicycle factory in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario for clock production. Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company produced high-quality clocks and successfully sold them throughout Southwestern Ontario, in the process defying the failed attempts by their Canadian predecessors.
All that remains of the David and Goliath battles fought by The Canada and Hamilton Clock Companies are the clocks. They are symbols of patriotism and courage. In The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Clocks the late author Jim Connell writes, it is ‘tempting to think of these [Canada and Hamilton] clocks as sleepers, whose value will increase as the market matures and grows more discerning”. A small collection of such clocks is featured in Miller & Miller’s Canadiana auction on Feb. 8, 2025.
The above clocks by the Canada Clock Company and the Hamilton Clock Company will be offered as part of the February 8th Canadiana auction at Miller & Miller.
One of the main things that makes Canada and Hamilton Clock Company Clocks so desirable is that they are uniquely Canadian. Every single model was 100 percent Canadian made – from top to bottom, inside and out. Some were even named after Canadians – like the ‘Tilley’, for the tariff-imposing Finance Minister Tilley, or the ‘Simpson’, named after The Hamilton Clock Company’s president James Simpson. They also had unique case styles and distinctive tablets (the decorative glass below the clock dial, either etched or painted). Some featured images of the iconic Canadian beaver, and such popular-at-the-time Canadian sentiments as “Cling to the Cross, “God Speed the Plough” and “Je Recois Pour Donner” (Consider the Lillies).
Early Canadian clocks often featured unique case designs and distinctive tablets—the decorative glass located beneath the clock dial, as seen in the two Hamilton Clock Co. examples above.
“Serious collectors of Canadian clocks have a Canadian content rule - ideally 100% made in Canada,” says Ethan Miller of Miller & Miller Auctions. “That’s why Canada and Hamilton Clock Company clocks are so sought after. They really do represent an important chapter in Canadian history”.
Miller & Miller has held other important clock auctions over the years, including the June 2019 Art & Antiques sale, featuring the Curt Davidson Pequegnat Collection and the Jim Connell Collection sold in October 2017 at their Clocks and Watches sale.
It’s a little ironic that the clocks made by these failed companies are now, almost 150 years later, so rare, so desirable and so appreciated. It’s about time.
By Diane Sewell & Ethan Miller
Sale Details:
Canadiana
February 8, 2025 | 9am EST
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