1930′s Clocks | Buy Retro Clocks

Faux Flip-Clock Alarm Dock
Although strictly speaking, this isn’t a phone, this cool iPhone dock from Areaware converts you existing iPhone into a neat retro-looking flip clock radio that looks it warped right in from the 1970′s. It gives you the look of one of those vintage GE Flip Clocks sitting next to your bed with all the modern technology and convenience of your trusty iPhone. Designed by Jonas Damon, the Alarm Dock by Areaware contains no actual electronics or speakers, it is simply a beautiful sustainably harvested beech wood case that you feed your charger cord into, then just dock your iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S and start [...]
Test Page Wall Clock
Please Stand By… From Nextime, Dutch design company which has made a name for itself by designing a whole slew of cool and funky clocks from the modern and mundane to the down right wacky, the contemporary styled Test Page Glass Wall Clock lies somewhere right in between. This glass faced wall clock was designed by Fritz Fink as a humorous take on the retro, nostalgic old test pattern shown on televisions when the networks went off the air. Gosh, it’s hard to believe there was a time when TV wasn’t running 24 hours a day. With a large, multicolored, 17″ glass face and rectangular metal hands [...]
Stylish Number Design Wall Clock
Cool Number Wall Clock! A recent trend in wall clocks has been oddly shaped numbers free-floating around the central movement and I have to admit that I am kind of a sucker for these contemporary clocks. I have seen them made from wood and plastic but the vast majority of them a cut out of thin metal with a plasma cutter. But anyone that has seen these clocks around has to admit that these number clocks can very widely in how well they are executed. Like any trend, the market is soon flooded with poor quality reproductions that don’t show [...]
Cool Retro Flip Clock
Remember the retro flip clocks from the 60s? The precursor to the digital clocks of the 1970s, flip clocks were an analog method of showing the time as a digital representation. As the minutes pass by, a panel with half of a numeral printed on both front and back flips down. The two halves of each digit fit together to form a bold and easy to read number to indicate the minute. The same thing is repeated once an hour to show the hour. It is a very simple mechanical solution from the days before miniaturization created circuits that were small enough to fit [...]
Build A 7 Ft Grandfather Clock With K’NEX
How would you like to build your own full size 7 ft tall, fully functional grandfather clock? Well unless you have years of experience in fine woodworking, this is probably something you are not going to attempt. Well, it may not be as hard as you think is you choose the right building materials. When my son was 7 years old we bought him a small set of a plastic building toy called K’NEX. It is kind of like the modern-day answer to the old Erector Set. Over the years, we collected more and more sets and his building projects expanded to be more and [...]

The Retro Classic Kit-Cat Wall Clock

Nov 082011

My parents had one of these cool wall clocks when I was back in the early 1970′s. That thing was very cool and even retro at the time. It was one of the old plug-in versions with the glow in the dark eyes and though I look back at it now and think fondly of it, I distinctly remember that the glowing eyes moving back and forth late at night terrified me back then. Ours was hung at the end of the hallway and I had to walk towards it to get to the bathroom. I remember running to the bathroom a lot back then.

Most people look back at this cool retro wall clock with a nostalgic feeling and they are just as popular today as they were back then.

Kit-Cat Clock History

The Kit-Cat Wall Clock or Kit-Cat Klock was originally released in 1932, during the height of the depression by a small west coast clock company based in Portland, Oregon called the California Clock Company. Although the original design was quite similar there were a few differences, for example it had paws only at the bottom of the clock, no bow tie and a hole in the clock face to wind it with a key like most clocks of that era.

In the late 40′s and 50′s, the winding mechanism was replaced by a cord you could plug directly into the wall. Later models added the two top paws and bow tie and in the 1980s the word Kit Cat was added to the face. Aside from that, the iconic art-deco look and the animated eyes and tail of the Kit-Cat Clock is largely unchanged.

The new Kit-Cat Wall Clock

By the 1980s, the iconic Retro Kit-Kat Clock had lost the cord and moved mainly to battery power, but this advancement was very nearly its demise. You see, the new battery power works available was not powerful enough to power the small motor which kept up the animation of the eyes and tail. Rising prices of the American made clock motor looked as if it may drive production of this American Icon overseas.

When faced with the possibility of moving production overseas, the California Clock Company undertook a major redesign of the inner workings. The result was a battery-powered Kit-Cat Wall Clock with enough power to move the “one second” cat animation and still keep production of this classic retro wall clock in America. Just be sure that you hang the newer clocks level so the new mechanistic, which uses gravity to maintain the movement works correctly. If the animation does stop, a gentle nudge of the tail will usually get it going again.

The Kit-Cat Wall Clock comes mainly in black, although there have been special editions and limited productions of other colors and styles. These limited runs send Kit-Cat collectors into a frenzy and usually sell out pretty quickly. Personally, I like the original black cat version myself but that is just my personal preference. It is kind of like painting a Model-T some other color than black, you could, but why would you.

You can usually find these classic retro clocks at specialty clock stores and cool vintage stores or if you are really lucky, a vintage clock might turn up at a local garage sale. I have seen them priced online for around $54 to about $65 but the best price I could locate was $49.98 from ClockStyle.com.