Style 1 Big Ben and Baby Ben

Big Ben Style 1 1909 - 1918 (has three screws through the front)	Big Ben Style 1a 1918 - 1935 (does not have three screws through the front)	Baby Ben with 2 Inch Movement 1910 - 1912 See movement photos and list of dates	Baby Ben Style 1 1912 - 1930 See list of dates and clock variations

Tooling was being made for the Big Ben alarm clock by 1908, the first Big Bens were sold in 1909, and they were first nationally advertised in the Sept. 24, 1910 Saturday Evening Post. Gaston LeRoy's report to the Westclox board of directors in 1908 outlines his proposed advertising campaign for the Big Ben.

In 1909, the tooling was being made for the Baby Ben alarm clock, the Baby Ben was first marketed in 1910, and first nationally advertised in the Sept. 25, 1915 Saturday Evening Post. The first Baby Bens had a modified 2 inch movement with an alarm mechanism added on the back. In 1912, the regular type of Baby Ben movement was put into production. It went through a number of variations as the design was perfected.

Sales figures for the first years of the Big Ben and Baby Ben

Trademark #	Date Filed	Date Registered	Name	In Use Since
79,875	7-5-10	10-11-10	Baby	6-2-10
83,877	6-29-11	10-17-11	baby Ben	6-2-10
87,388	3-13-12	7-9-12	LITTLE BEN	3-4-12

We have never seen a clock marked “Little Ben” (except for a much later clock made in the 1970’s). A pocket watch labeled “Little Ben” dated 1914 has been reported, and perhaps the “LITTLE BEN” trademark in the above table refers to that watch.

References

Sales figures: “Westclox Annual Sales Statistics Ledger”, Collection 116, Box 28, held by the the Regional History Center at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois.

Information about the Baby Ben with two inch movement, and information about tooling up for Big Ben and Baby Ben production: “Westclox Department Reports, 1904 - 1922”, Collection 116, Box 7, Files 3 - 14 , held by the Regional History Center at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois.

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