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Lackner and Neon Product

Clocks

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Sorry, folks, but we have a bit of confusion here. Some of these clocks are marked "Lackner", some are marked "Neon Products", and some aren't marked at all. Our difficulty is that there seems to be identical clocks identified as Lackner and Neon Products. Because of this, we are grouping them together.

We suspect that the Lackner company became Neon Products, either through change of ownership or spinning off the Neon Products line. However, we have no verification of this. If someone can provide further information, we'll redesign these pages to reflect historical accuracy.

Lackner began with small desk-top clocks. Some of the most sought-after (e.g. expensive) clocks are these styles. However, this web site is dedicated to the wall clocks, so I don't have any photos of the small clocks.

These "wall" clocks come in a variety of styles... round, octagon, square, rectangular. They always advertise a specific product on the face. Most had back-painted designs on the glass, often a spinner. We've tried to present a decent cross-section here. There's a heavy reproduction market out there, and we've naturally avoided those on this web site.

Note: click here for a couple of patents that were filed by Neon Products for signs (not clocks).      

Click on the Photo to see a larger image

This is a Lackner clock. We haven't often seen round Lackner or Neon Product clocks with this style of can. The round styles below are more common.

 Here's is the square style by Neon Products. It has an aluminum frame around the glass. These International Harvester clocks are quite common.

This is the same style as the previous clock, except this one is made by Lackner. It's easy to see why we think these are the same company.

Another Lackner, but we've seen the same style as a Neon Products product. These rectangular clocks are occasionally seen with the long side vertical, rather than horizontal, as in this fine example. Note the more elaborate trim painted on the glass.

It's a requirement that every town in Texas have a "Pearl" clock. State law. This is an example of the octagonal clock style, with rounded corners. This has the same trim as the previous clock.

This octagonal clock, again with rounded corners, has a optical illusion "spinner". The older clocks, such as this, have a metal spinner disk attached by wires to the second hand shaft. New versions, and current reproductions, have a plastic disk on the second hand shaft, with a second hand painted on the plastic disk. If you see a spinner with a second hand, watch out for a reproduction clock.

Here's the octagon style with sharp edges. Again, we see the elaborate trim painted on the glass.

I thought this was unusual, since it has neon mounted behind a logo painted on the glass. This is the only example I've found of this style. The hands are unusual, too.

This is an interesting style... triangular, almost always advertising a radio station. Sometimes, the clock "face" is round. Also, often the letters and numbers across the bottom are plastic characters glues on the front of the clock, as in this example.

There's a lot of different photos of Lackner or Neon Product  clocks in my photo album. I've attempted to display only one of each style on the pages that are linked above.  Here's a gallery of the other photos I have. 

This is a great little clock, similar to the non-neon "bubble" advertising clocks. But this had white neon inside. It's advertising "Universal Pumps", and was found on old Route 66 in OKC, in an area known for oil-field and related pump manufacturers. 
       
This clock has Neon Products name on the face plate, but a logo for "Travel Time" more prominently on the face. This model was produced by Neon Products (note the wire spinner and same glass paint scheme as found on other Neon Products clocks), but were evidently sold under the Travel Time and Marvin Display names. To our knowledge, this is the only model that Neon Products manufactured for outside use.

Here is a photo of the Neon Products factory production floor. There are a variety of clocks being produced, including one of the "Travel Time" style clocks almost complete.

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