German Regulator Clock
Greetings Brian -- What a really interesting question! Hope you don't mind some first-and-a-half thought thoughts.
I suppose we'd expect that expect that a ranking of German marks on clocks seen in the US would reflect, however roughly, the production rates over how many years of German manufacturers, their export goals in general, and their specific goals for the US.
So for instance we might reasonably expect that Junghans' marks would be among those most frequently met as they claimed to be the largest clock manufacturer in the world in the decade before World War I, they were also among the longest lived, and they tried to flog their clocks in all four corners of the world. Whereas Concordia of Freiburg (Schl.) which only lasted from 1881 to 1899 would be comparatively less seen and little noted.
Yet if it is probably a simplification, for several reasons
First, there's a tendency to underestimate the number of German clock manufacturers while overestimating the amount of information we have on them. Would encourage you to look at a copy of Schmid's superb (2005) volume _Lexikon der Deutschen Uhrenindustrie 1850-1980_, now *the* standard reference to German manufacturers. (The NAWCC Library & Research Center has two copies (and there's a review of it in the Horo Lit MB).
Schmid has some 2,170 clockmaking firms (firms, not clockmakers) in the listings section which gives basic information. And in a second section he has over 300 firms for which he gives fuller descriptions. That second section covers some 350 pages alone.
Yet for the majority of these firms we don't have information about how many clocks were made each year and how many were intended for export or were exported.
Then too, German clocks were normally sold to the trade (not directly to customers) through wholesalers or "Vertreter," agents or representatives. So in a 1905 report quoted by Kahlert it was noted that clocks which were to be sold overseas also were usually handled through Leipzig-based wholesalers. Sort of you could get anything you want at a Leipzig Uhren-restaurant.
A variant was having a "Vertreter" outside of Germany which would flog your clocks, sometimes along with other firms' there, and sometimes outside of that country as well.
Landenberger & Co. of London for instance were listed in a 1904 German "address book" as the Vertreter (agents or representatives) for Gordian Hettich Sohn, Lenzkirch, and VFU/Becker, as well as their "normal" representation for HAU. And London-based agents are said to have commonly exported German clocks to HM colonies as well as within the UK.
As another example, we know that (as of 1915) a firm in the US, Geo. Kuehl & Co. of Chicago, were agents for Mauthe, HAU, VFU/Becker, and Junghans as their US trademarks registration were through them. From the same 1915 trademark listing we also know that Kienzle had American agents, in NYC.
But I'm not aware of any US listing of all American agents for German firms. Nor do Geo. Kuehl & Co. show up in the German 1904 listings of Vertreter! And Americans firms could also tag clocks mede in Germany for them with their own names.
In short, I don't know how we'd establish how many of those 2,170 firms (1) had US-based agents at one time or another, or/and (2) relied upon wholesalers on the other side of the Atlantic or (3) didn't care about the US market or (4) wouldn't because of the high US tariffs.
Various German governments did of course report on export figures. You can find in old German clockmakers' trade journals a report for example from Baden on how Lenzkirch did with its exports in 1892. On the larger level there are German statistics that claim, for instance, that just before the Great War Germany accounted for 60% of the world's export market in clocks. Or that Winterhalder & Hofmeier concentrated almost exclusively on the UK and US markets.
Yet that type thing looked at, there are two further and nicely messy <G> complexities. First, I'd guess that most of the German manufactured clocks we see in the US today were
not exported by the firms or wholesalers or imported by agents etc. Rather, they were brought back to the US from Germany (or Europe) by American military personnel and tourists, and largely in the past half-century.
And secondly, certain types of German manufactured clocks -- cuckoos and 400-day clocks specifically -- are actually more common in the US than in Germany. This is somewhat amusing I suppose but it certainly skews the expectations of what one should expect to see.
Hereabouts every clockie knows or knows of some fellow who was stationed in Germany in those years in which the dollar was greener and shipping was supplied by Uncle Sam, who brought back a hundred (or two hundred or gobs...) of clocks. Clocks shipped in by container loads before there were containers.
There was a local auction here about a year ago for example in which 240+ German (industrial) clocks were auctioned off. Almost all were wall clocks and all were brought back from Germany in the 50s by a fellow who'd been stationed there.
Most were from "name firms" such as, well, those you mention. But there wasn't one single alarm clock, although ca1905 around 70% of all clocks made in Württemberg were alarms. Nor was there one cuckoo because the fellow was collecting mainly middle-priced freeswingers and German factory "Viennas".
Yet there are without a doubt more cuckoos in the US than in all of Germany.
But to circle back around, the largest German manufacturers in that decade after that last turn before the last of the centuries were Junghans, Kienzle, VFU (aka Gustav Becker), HAU and Mauthe. So all other things considered equal those are the names we'd expect to see most commonly in Germany, too, if we asked for the top five.
But then again we also notice them. At that auction the dealers were going through the clocks looking for Beckers and Lenzies -- brand names which would assumedly resell better because they were brand names. Whereas I was pleased (delighted actually) because there was one quite elegant "Vienna" from the Regulator Fabrik Germania of Freiburg which everyone ignored. And a big beautiful massiv grandfather clock from Etzold & Popitz.
Now let me have a second thought on your still very good question <G>.
Best regards, Duck
