I like to collect both Telechron and Ingraham clocks. They are the primary source of inspiration for my own clocks. I'm particularly fond of the Ingraham "Skyline" clock, it came in both electric and one-day mechanical (I have about 10 of them). It has a beautiful set of Art Deco & Moderne motifs employing skyscraper images; a theme in many of Ingraham's 1930's era clocks.

Ingraham alarm clocks were produced very cheeply and don't generally age as well as the Telechrons do; at least that's been my experience (most you find on the internet need a lot of work). Still there are a ton of them out there, just go out to eBay and search for Ingraham clocks...you'll see pages and pages of them for sale, both alarm and mantel. The clocks I collect from Ingraham are all alarm clocks, I'm not exactly sure why, I guess I just really like their styling.

"Chum" Don't you just like the name? A clock that's supposed to be your Chum... well at any rate it's a nice small rectangular one-day alarm clock. Ingraham employed only a few variations on a consistent theme with the internal movements and a Chum is a smaller version but a lot of these clocks have very interchangable movements.


"Papoose" Not sure where the indian name came from, it is a small clock of course... I do like the styling of the dial though. Ingraham used the full range of materials, this one is wood, the Skylines and many others were Die cast, then of course the dabbled in plastics as well. There are two small holes in the front where I assume something was originally mounted; advertising, an award plate?


An original "Skyline", this is a later model that is electrified. This is a picture of one that is pretty much representative of what you will get if you purchase one off the internet. They've been used hard and it shows, most don't work when I get them and need an overhaul. In this case, as with all early electrics, you just cut the cord completely off and start over...


Purists will of course object to this but that's fine. In working out the details of how all this would look I took a number of stock Skylines, painted them up, changed out the dial to my own design and this is how they come out looking. I've got 6 different variations on this theme humming away in the bookcase behind me, including copper, chrome, green, blue, yellow, and this creme colored one.
  
  
Of course the ones I make are plastic not thin shell die-cast metal like the originals, and they're electric; probably 95% of the Skyline's out there are mechanical. This model must have been very successful for Ingraham, they released it with a number of different names, it was even released as a radium clock ("Fireball"). All the mechanical versions of this model are not self-starting. Many people assume that when they wind them and they don't start immediately they're broken. Often all it takes is a gental rocking side to side once or twice and they start up immediately.


The "Gable" has a nice cathederal motif, fat hands and a beautiful Deco font. These are nice, it's hard to find good examples of it though, most are pretty beat up.




The "National Call" is a name used for a range of similar Ingraham clocks in a host of shapes: square, round, and rectangular. These are interchangable with others Ingraham produced that all have slightly different bases that bolt on the the main clock. Here are a few nice examples.


The "Salute" is also a name reused in a number of Ingraham clocks. You can really see an overall common Ingraham appearance between the National Call and the Salute. Similar font's though one has outlining, they're really both the same.


One of my few Ingraham electrics. The "Sentinel", so many of the models of the pre and post-war era have these very military sounding names like "Salute" and "Sentinel", reminding us to be ever vigilent... This is a nice model, a bit nicked around the edge, its a plated thin shelled metal clock. Nice lettering and dial face which are in excellant condition.


Another "Sentinel", this one an 8 day mechanical alarm. Again wonderful Art Deco lettering on the dial face and the hands which have a tulip shape are wonderful, one of my most favorite Ingraham's. This identical model was also released under the name Leeds, everthing (bezel, hands, dial face etc.) was simply changed from gold to silver.


Ingraham made both one-day and eight-day alarm clock. The "Ace" line was (from what I can tell) eight day alarm versions. I've had both the one and eight day movements apart to clean and they look remarkably similar, some changes in the balance mechanism but primarily just a much longer main spring. Ingraham's movements are remarkably simple yet extremely rugged, most haven't warn the pivot holes out (that I've seen) in many years of service, though they do all seem to exhibit a lot of wear on the primary pinion gear off the mainspring, which I guess is to be expected since it takes so much force. I've noticed that to get a dead one running all they often require is just to be soaked in solvent, blasted with compressed air to remove the grime and solvent and then given a light lubrication on the pivot holes and they start right up and run reliably.