Two Inch Baby Ben Alarm Clock History
1910 to 1912
No name on dial
Alarm dial is at the 6:00 position
The Baby Ben with 2 inch movement was the first Baby Ben made, and
was sold from 1910 to 1912. This clock has no model name or company name
on either the dial or the movement, just the patent dates Oct. 28, 1902;
June 9, 1908; and Dec. 15, 1908 on the back. The examples we know of have
movement dates ranging from October 18, 1910 to June 7, 1912.
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Right: Side view of the "two layer" movement used in
the Baby Ben Two Inch. The layer nearest the dial is the timekeeping
portion and is the 2 inch time-only movement commonly used in novelty
and desk clocks. The rear layer of the movement contains the alarm mechanism. |
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The key on the right is not original to the clock.
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Back view showing patent dates Oct. 28, 1902; June 9, 1908;
and Dec. 15, 1908.
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Documented dates of Baby Ben with 2 inch movement
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| 10-18-10 |
| 2-21-11 |
| 6-6-11 |
| 8-11-11 |
| 10-10-11 |
| 12-1-11 |
| 12-19-11 |
| 3-17-12 |
| 4-1-12 |
| 5-15-12 |
| 6-7-12 |
Baby Ben Two Inch History
Gaston LeRoy mentioned the possibility of a smaller version
of the Big Ben in his March
1908 advertising report. The first, early version of the Baby Ben was
made with a variation of the “2 Inch” movement that has an alarm
mechanism added on to the rear, forming a “two layer movement.”
We thus refer to this clock as the “Baby Ben Two Inch”, and
examples dating from 10-18-10 to 5-15-12 are known to exist. This clock
has no name on it, just the patent dates Oct. 28, 1902; June 9, 1908; and
Dec. 15, 1908 on the back. This web page shows photos and dates of known
examples.
The following brief history is summarized from Westclox department
reports of 1908 to 1912.
Starting in the second quarter of 1909, case body drawing
tools and some movement tooling was made for a clock referred to as the
“Little B. B.” In the second quarter of 1910, tooling was being
made for a clock referred to as “Little Ben” and "Little B.B.”
(in a few places it appears that the name Little Ben had been changed to
Little B. B.) The second quarter 1910 (Mar. 28 – June 18) manufacturing
report states “We have made about 200 Baby Ben movements so far and
after vacation we intend to start assembling them regularly and slowly increase
the quantity as we get the help broken in to work on them.” The 3Q
1910 Engineering Department report states “Work on the “Little
Ben” drawings is going forward.”
The 4Q 1911 Manufacturing report (dated Jan. 12, 1912) states
“The baby Ben clock at present is gotten out in connection with the
two inch movement. The production of two inch is 300 [units per day] and
the baby Ben 60. This occupies a floor space of 2048 square feet. To produce
1000 baby Ben will take a floor space of nearly 3000 square feet, which
room will have to be provided.”
The baby Ben Two Inch is so much different from the main line
of Baby Bens, that it is considered by many collectors not to be a “real”
baby Ben at all. It does not have a good movement design, and
in fact a good movement for the Baby Ben was not produced until late
1914 or early 1915.
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