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It is often surprising to our museum visitors that there were so many Canadian companies that made significant numbers of clocks for the Canadian market, as early as the 1870s and as recently as the 1970s. Most were located in Ontario.

Below is a list of the main producers, seven of which (Snider, Walter, Girotti, Breslin, Paul Pequegnat, Hammond in Toronto, and Fleet) were "discovered" by our own research since 2000. There may well be other companies as yet unknown. We welcome pictures and information from our online visitors.

There is an excellent (out of print) book about the first three companies that mass produced clocks in Canada (in Whitby, then Hamilton, Ontario) and another, also out of print, about Pequegnat clocks.

For the rest, the estimated dates come either from company listings in old business directories or from personal meetings with descendents of company founders.

Production records are not known, but the numbers probably range from perhaps a hundred to hundreds of thousands of clocks, often with dozens of models.

Twiss brothers (Joseph, Russell, Ira; Montreal, Lower Canada 1820s)
Canada Clock Company (Whitby, Ontario 1872 - 1876)
Hamilton Clock Company (Hamilton, Ontario 1876 - 1880)
Canada Clock Company (Hamilton, Ontario 1880 - 1884)
Edward P. Baird & Co. (Montreal, Quebec ca. 1887 - 1890)
The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company (Berlin/1916/Kitchener, Ontario 1904 - 1941)
The Western Clock Company / WESTCLOX (Peterborough, Ontario 1920 - mid 1980s)
The Hammond Company of Canada Ltd (Toronto ca. 1931 - 1936)
Walter Clocks (Toronto late 1930s - mid 1950s)
Fleet Time Co. Ltd (Montreal, Quebec 1936 - 1940)
Snider Clock Corporation / Snider Clock Mfg Company Ltd (Toronto 1950 - 1976)
Breslin Industries (Toronto, 1950s clocks)
Girotti Sculptured Art (St. Catharines, Ontario early 1960s - 1979)
The Pequegnat Clock Company of Canada (Paul Pequegnat, Manotick, Ontario 1984 -1997)
Ingraham Canadian Clock Co. Ltd (Toronto, ca. late 1940s - 1980s
Seth Thomas Clocks (in the Westclox factory, Peterborough, Ontario ca. 1931 - 1980s)
Canadian General Electric Co. Ltd (Toronto ca. 1930 - 1959)
New Haven Clock Company (early 1900s imports with Toronto label; Brantford, Ontario factory ca. 1930s - 1950s)
Canadian Neon-Ray Clock Company (Montreal ca. 1942 - mid 1960s)
many companies, mostly in Toronto, that made advertising clocks 1950s - 1970s
many companies, mostly in Toronto, that made glass-tube clock radios in the 1950s

Mid 1800s Weight Clocks
There were many individual sellers of weight-driven clocks in British North America in the decades before Canadian federation in 1867. Some lived in the old provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Some lived in the 1830s in Upper Canada (U.C., now part of southern Ontario) and... [More]

The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company
Arthur Pequegnat came from Switzerland to Berlin, Ontario around 1874 with his many brothers, sisters, and parents. In the 1880s he was importing watches for sale locally in western Ontario. Around 1897 Arthur built a factory in Berlin to manufacture ... bicycles! When that... [More]

Westclox Canada
The Western Clock Company in LaSalle, Illinois (started in the 1870s) shipped their alarm clocks north to Canada for many years early in the twentieth century. In 1920, Peterborough, Ontario was chosen as the site for a Canadian factory. Following two successful years in rented... [More]

Canadian Neon-Ray Clock Company
Based on our research to date, mainly through reading the old business directories at the National Library in Ottawa, this business was in operation from ca. 1942 to the mid 1960s at 371 Dowd Street in Montreal. The first President was Walter Pam. There probably is a connection... [More]

Snider Clock Corporation and Snider Clock Manufacturing Company Limited
	The first of these Toronto-based companies, the Snider Clock Corporation, was set up in 1950 by Harry Snider, who operated a wholesale jewelery business on Yonge Street at the time. The company name was changed in 1957 to the Snider Clock Mfg Co. Limited. Over a period of... [More]

Blackforest Clock Company and Forestville Clock Company
The Blackforest Clock Company of Toronto, Ontario was set up by Leopold and Sara Stossel in 1928. Both clock movements and complete clocks were imported from Germany and sold through department and jewelry stores across Canada. Their son Ed Stossel started working part time with his... [More]

Canada Clock Company, Hamilton Clock Company, and Canada Clock Company
	The first attempts by Canadians to produce clocks in a factory environment are represented by this set of three companies that struggled to survive against the imports from nine Connecticut companies in the late 1800s. The first Canada Clock Company was set up in Whitby, Ontario in the... [More]

Walter Clocks (Toronto)
	WALTER CLOCKS was a mid 20th century Canadian company located in Toronto in the 1930s - 1950s. The main product was mantel clocks - all of the cases were made in Toronto. The prewar / postwar paper label is always found pasted inside the back door and usually has the CLOCK STYLE NO.... [More]

Girotti Sculptured Art Clocks (St. Catharines)
	From the early 1960s to the late 1970s, members of the Girotti family in St. Catharines, Ontario made many models of molded chalkware statues, pedestals, 3D wall plaques, picture and mirror frames, and 3D chalkware wood wall plaques. They had sales agents across Canada by 1971. The company,... [More]

Breslin Industries (Toronto)
	My early research indicated that Edward Breslin had started this Toronto-based company by the mid 1940s. From the Dundurn Press web site (January 2015): “J. Edward Breslin [was] a Toronto-born business executive and a graduate of the University of Toronto in Commerce and Finance.... [More]

Canadian Animated Alarm Clocks
	Westclox Canada in Peterborough, Ontario and Ingraham Canadian in Toronto made several models of windup (spring driven) animated alarm clocks in the mid 20th century for the Canadian market. The Westclox PIXIE model dates to the 1930s. The other two are a decade later: 1940s/50s... [More]

The Pequegnat Clock Company of Canada
	NOTE: this section is not about The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company that was in business a long time ago in Berlin / Kitchener, Ontario from 1904 to about 1941. See our separate section and gallery for details and pictures for Arthur's company. The Pequegnat Clock... [More]

The Hammond Company of Canada Ltd (Toronto)
	The parent Hammond clock company was based in Chicago in the early 1930s. The Hammond Company of Canada Ltd was in business in Toronto for just a few years, from about 1931 to 1936 (dased on old city business directories listings). The electric clocks made in... [More]

Fleet Time Company Ltd (Montreal)
	Based on our research in old business directories, Fleet Time Company Ltd was in business in Montreal for just the years 1936 to 1940 before WWII apparently cut off the supply of German clocks and clock movements. The wood cases were made in Canada for some models. Our museum... [More]