Clement Studebaker Jr. and George M. Studebaker — the watch company

the purchase 1903 (one account, 1902) · closed 27 November 1929

The second generation buys a works: In 1903, on the standard account — the NAWCC company history compiled by Warren H. Riddle dates the purchase to 1902, and both stand — Clement Studebaker Jr. and George Studebaker bought the assets of the bankrupt Columbus Watch Company of Columbus, Ohio, and organized the South Bend Watch Company. They brought 145 Columbus men with them, including the noted watch designer Walter Cross Shelton Sr., built a new factory, and began production in March 1905. The watches were quality-grade pocket watches, hardened and tempered in a patented ice-box process the company called the freezing process, and sold from $16 to $125. The peak years ran at 60,000 watches a year with nearly 600 employees. The company's total production is carried in the record at figures between about 850,000 and nearly 1,000,000 watches, against serial numbers running to about 1,240,000 — the discrepancy is a known one among collectors and is printed as such.

The founders' other houses: Clement Jr. was the wagon president's son and a founder in his own right a second time over: the record carries him as president of the Citizens' National Bank from 1919 to 1922, and his utilities — North American Light & Power and Illinois Power & Light, on the Wealth section's correction of the record — made a second fortune's attempt outside the family's trade; his Elm Court, built in 1908, was bought by Vincent Bendix in 1928. George M. Studebaker stands in Erskine's 1918 history among the corporation's directors; his fortune ended in bankruptcy in the Depression's worst winter, on the Wealth section's record. The watch company's end was the crash's: from 1923 it had sold on credit through a mail-order subsidiary, and on 27 November 1929 — the day before Thanksgiving — holding a large volume of delinquent accounts, the plant closed, the brothers' venture ending twenty-six years after they bought it.

Sources:

1. Businesses — "South Bend Watch Company" (the 1903 purchase against Riddle's 1902 dating; the 145 Columbus men and Shelton; production from March 1905; the freezing process and the price range; the peak years; the production totals against the serial numbers, printed as a discrepancy; the 1923 mail-order subsidiary; the closing of 27 November 1929).
2. Banks — "The Citizens' National Bank" (Clement Studebaker Jr. among its presidents, 1919–1922).
3. Great Fortunes — "Studebaker descent" and corrections (Clement Jr.'s utilities as North American Light & Power / Illinois Power & Light; Elm Court built 1908 and bought by Bendix in 1928; George M. Studebaker's bankruptcy).