Penwood Numechron made “digital clocks” – cyclometers that is, and is perhaps best known for their TV Tymeter – advertised as, no joke now, “Glolite Colorama Television Lamp-Clock with Focalizer Stare-Break”, which is quite a mouth-full. At least, that’s how the marketing department described it back in the 50’s. Unless you grew up with those early black & white TV’s, it’s hard to remember what weak picture tubes they had – and of course we’ve moved completely away from cathode ray picture tubes at this point (young people going out to youtube probably wonder what the “tube” part is about?).

At the time of these clocks, television viewing was best done in slightly darker rooms with subdued lighting. The folks at Pennwood gave us a clock that had a clear plastic back and a small internal light. You could stick it right on top or by your TV to provide that faint lighting for what was assumed to be an otherwise darkened room (so that your TV was easier to view). The “focalizer stare-break” refers to the notion that if you look up from the TV every so often (at the clock), maybe you won’t get a headache… they got that part right, accurate today.

The Tymeter mechanism was actually patented quite a bit earlier, on February 12th 1935 by Frederick A. Greenawalt, he received US Patent 1,990,645 for the tymeter mechanism.

It was manufactured and marketed by at least 2 companies (I think it’s really just one?) from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. These clocks peaked in popularity in the late 1950’s then faded as other mid-century styles began to take over Be somewhat careful with the units that “glow-in-the-dark”. The units that have a cream colored outer bezel that glows, may be doing so from Radium mixed into the paint, the full understanding on radiation hazards not being fully understood in the 1950’s. Probably best to steer clear of those if you’re collecting old clocks, the same general guidance applies to alarm clocks with luminous dials and hands.

My only Penwood (it doesn’t glow in the dark), if you don’t count a Seth Thomas I bought that turned out to be a standard Penwood movement with a 10 cent plastic shell wrapped around it. I think I have a mental block where these are concerned since I always lose them at auction. Like Hammond though, I think that they OEM’d a lot since I see their movement in other clocks like the Seth Thomas I bought. I remember when I was young (the 60’s) going to the Firestation where my father worked and seeing the radio dispatchers room. They had what seemed like an enormous radio console and right in the middle of it was a built-in Penwood Numechron clock… The room had a certain NASA control room feel to it, always shrouded in smoke, coffee cups littering the place. I remember being fascinated by that clock, the way that the minute dial wouldn’t start moving until the revolving second’s dial hit 60.

The TV Tymeter a classic that I believe they sold for several decades in one form or another, since I’ve seen copies of this from the early 50’s into the 60’s. It surfaced in a number of formats, including one in which you could put business cards in front and special advertisements (I’ve seen the united mine workers on the front, as well as political figures). There are follow on’s to this design, other various TV shaped versions but this one seems definitive. How about that font, and the colors (blue/green/red – not a normal choice for clock face coloring but they wanted to emphasize hours/tens/minutes separately apparently?