WWII era War Alarm clock with cardboard surrounds

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c. 1943 - 1945

Overview

World War Two era 'War Alarm' clock. It features a square, black outer casing constructed from non-metallic, pressed wood fibre or heavy cardboard pulp. This has minor scuffs where the black overlay is missing, revealing the buff coloured inner material below.
A cream coloured, square dial clock face is housed behind a convex clear protective lens. The numbers 1 through 12 are printed in a bold, stylized black typeface, accompanied by a standard inner minute track. There are three black metallic hands mounted in the centre - a short voided hour hand, a longer voided minute hand, and a thin solid alarm indicator pointer.
The words 'WAR ALARM' are written in black in the centre of the clock face and the phrase 'MADE IN WINSTED, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A.' in smaller black letters along the bottom.
The reverse of the casing features a circular, black painted metal plate that exposes the manual mechanical controls. It includes a key for winding the mainspring, a smaller knob to adjust the time, and a regulatory lever to fine-tune the speed mechanism. Instructions and information are impressed into the plate.

Historical information

The War Alarm clock was produced during 1943-45 as a wartime economy measure. The U.S. War Production Board commissioned these clocks to ensure civilian factory workers and military personnel could reliably arrive at their shifts on time to support war production efforts.
Metal which would normally have been used to encase the clock mechanism was in short supply due to being required for military applications - bullets, bombs, tanks, planes and so on. This led to changes to materials which were more readily available including plastic, paper pulp, pressed wood fibre and heavy cardboard.

There are several items in the collection which show similar adaptations - plastic military insignia (known as economy badges); a Monopoly set where metal counters were replaced by a piece of card held by a wooden base and the dice replaced by a spinner; and pencils missing metal caps and rubbers (rubber being used to make tyres and other military equipment). In some cases, a written disclaimer is with the item explaining that due to wartime shortages, the owner is asked to accept it as wartime craftsmanship.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-119-RoW00994

Item type

Clocks

Collectibles

Domestic Objects

Personal Effects

Themes

Social History

War and Conflict

War and Conflict > World War 2