1928 - 1932  The Dawn of Deco

Please don't let's fight about 'art deco' before we even start talking about clocks.  We can disagree about its health as an art movement in 1928 but there's no denying its impact on the design of everyday items.  Not limited to things usually considered to have "style" (furniture, jewelry, cars, buildings, etc), art deco sparked engineers in all fields to rethink their designs. Streamlined and Moderne were words commonly used to describe the appealing new designs of vacuum cleaners,  fuseboxes, refrigerators, shoe polish cans, passenger trains and tape dispensers.

Telechron made their first art deco entry in a huge way.  Paul Frankl did as much as any one man to defining the style with his many, striking designs.  Telechron had him design a clock that would become the 431 "Modernique", as actively sought by deco collectors as Telechronies.  It was the only clock he designed for Telechron but within a few years, the style more than caught on--it became the de-facto standard.  Some of  most famous and prolific designers would impart their own interpretation of art deco into scores of Telechrons.

  Despite the success of the affordable, bakelite "Cathedral", Telechron was cautious about committing to plastics.  You'll find a few high deco styles here but until they proved viable, Telechron kept doling out neo-colonial styles featuring every possible variation on the tambour clock.  Collect 'em all!

General Electric began to sell Telechrons starting in 1928.  Their clocks from this period would ALWAYS carry both the General Electric and Telechron logos.  Even tho' they owned half of Telechron anyway, it was sound marketing; selling the same product under two different names will invariably increase market share.  (Ever give a close look at those identical bottles of dish detergent at the supermarket?)  Or, it may have just been a way of getting the public used to thinking of the two companies as one as part of a long-term merger/takeover strategy.
 
 
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