Westclox made a reproduction of the Big Ben style 1a leg model in 1969 - 1970. About 20,000 were made*, most of them in the standard nickel plated cases but a small number have gold plated cases. Much the old tooling was used, but the old lever escapement tooling had been sold to another company and was not available. Therefore a pin-pallet escapement was used (instead of the pallets having a trapezoidal cross section). Externally, the reproduction can be identified by the use of shouldered screws and the wording “Made by Westclox, LaSalle, Ill., U.S.A.” at the bottom of the dial.
This clock was written up by J. E. Coleman in his “Clockwise and Otherwise” column in the February 1970 "American Horologist and Jeweler", pp. 38 - 39.
Its retail price was $40 and it came in a hexagon box decorated with black and white cuts of items reminiscent of the early 1900s.
Image courtesy of Jeffrey R. Wood.
*Conversation with Ed Cielaszyk, former Engineering Manager of Westclox, in 1981. Ed worked at Westclox for many years, starting in 1941.
