1938 and 1953 NCR, CPC Sales Quota Award Clocks

These clocks were produced for the National Cash Register Company as an awards for their top salesmen for achieving outstanding sales quotas. NCR produced these awards clocks from 1938 into the 70’s. 1938 models had a calendar feature for manually setting the day of the week, month, date, and year in the till readout section section from 1938 to 1949 only, and had a NCR logo button on the back. According to NCR the “CPC” on these clocks stands for “Century Point Club”. The salesman initials appear on the front of each clock, the 1938 clock has ARC small font and the 1953 model has it EKC on the front of it. The clocks have a standard Pennwood movement. Pennwoods can be dated by the font on the read out, the times roman font is on the older clocks 1935 - 45. The two drawers are functional and could be used for storing stamps, paper clips, or other small items and must be removed to gain access to the number wheels so that the clock can be set. The clock is heavy for its size, weighing just under 5 pounds. The 1938 clock is 6" wide, 5" deep and 6.5" tall and the 1953 clock is 6" wide, 5" deep and 7" tall.

These clocks were very well made by hand, and were not mass-produced item. The case was fabricated from sheet steel that was stamped, then welded or riveted together. The drawers and bottom section were produced as a unit, and the pieces numbered to keep them together which sounded good in theory but not in practice, some have grease penciled in numbers above the stamped numbers. Each of the register buttons were cut from plastic rod stock individually, and the numerals were hand painted and then glued into place. These clocks were never sold to the public. The 1938 clocks are quite rare, the 1953 clocks are not so rare.

© RLW 2018