Newman – Guardsman Key

Detex Newman 1927

The "Detex Newman" uses the basic principal of all Newman clocks  -- direct embossing from the station key.  This model was introduced in 1927, twenty-five years after Mr. Newman's first use of that principal.  The Newman principal has been in use for 97 years, and the "Detex Newman" has been in continuous production for over 72 years. With its offspring, the "Guardsman," it has undoubtedly outsold all other models combined.

When the "Detex" line of watchclocks was brought out in the 1920s, a one-day movement produced by the Bürk firm in Schwenningen was used.  A drastic import duty initiated in the early depression years forced a change in 1932 to a one-day movement produced for Detex by the Chelsea Clock Company.   The Bürk movement was continued in clocks destined for export, because the high import duty was offset by drawback paid upon export. This came to an end in 1939 and the Chelsea was used universally. Production moved to a "small" eight day Chelsea and then, when that movement proved deficient,  to a "large" eight day version. When Chelsea decided in the late 1940s that it did not want to be in the business of producing movements for others, it helped Detex set up to manufacture the movement itself.  Production started in 1951 with an escapement from Recta, of Bienne, Switzerland, and with numerous escapement substitutions, has continued to the present.