Howard Miller Clock Company

Type: Private
On the web: http://www.howardmiller.com
Employees: 750

A leading floor clock manufacturer, Howard Miller Clock Company also makes alarm clocks, desk sets, wall and mantel clocks, grandfather clocks, and ornate collectors cabinets. Products are sold in about 50 countries, and prices range wildly from $5 to $15,000. Since the 1920s Howard Miller Clock Company has specialized in clock-making based on Mr. Howard Miller's craftsmanship, learned while a young man in the Black Forest region of Germany. The company purchased Pulaski Furniture's Ridgeway Clocks division in 2004.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2007:
Sales: $98.0M

Officers:
CEO: Phil Miller
President: Howard J. (Buzz) Miller
VP Finance: Housewares

Competitors:
Citizen
Colibri
Seiko

Originally named the Herman Miller Clock Company (having family links with the more famous Herman Miller Furniture Company) this Michigan-based firm established its reputation at the New York World's Fair of 1939-40 where it displayed clocks in a contemporary style after over a decade of working on more traditional models using imported clock movements. After the Second World War (during which the company had produced anti-aircraft covers for aeroplanes manufactured by the Ford Motor Company) the Howard Miller Clock Company manufactured several contemporary style products for George Nelson Associates, including the Ball (1949) and Asterisk (1950) wall clocks. The former, with its hours marked out in molecular-like balls, shared the interest in atom-based forms of designers working in the Contemporary Style whilst several of the other products for Nelson assumed some of the characteristics of contemporary sculpture. It has been suggested that these almost abstract designs were the work of Nelson associates Isamu Noguchi and Irving Harper. After this brief foray into a progressive vocabulary suited to the post-Second World War corporate aesthetic of Modernism, the Howard Miller Clock Company once again reverted to more traditional models before moving into digital clocks and alarms in the 1970s and 1980s, a period in which it also worked on domestic models. Also at this time the company diversified into furniture manufacture, purchasing the Hekman Furniture Company in 1983.

Howard Miller Clock Company
Type	Private
Founded	1926
Headquarters	Zeeland, Michigan; manufacturing facilities also in Germany
Key people	Phil Miller, President
Industry	Clocks
Products	Longcase clocks Curio Cabinets
Slogan	World's Largest Grandfather Clock Manufacturer

The Howard Miller Clock Company is a Zeeland, Michigan based manufacturer of longcase clocks. The company bills itself as the "World's Largest Grandfather Clock Manufacturer".

History

Howard Miller Clock Company was founded in 1926 as the Howard Miller Clock Company. Originally a division of office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, the company was spun off in 1937 under the leadership of Herman Miller's son Howard C. Miller. Today, there is no connection between the two companies although their headquarters are across the street from one another.

In the 1950's they produced scores of wall clocks and table clocks designed by George Nelson Associates. They also produced Nelson's Bubble Lamps through the late 1960's (they have been reissued by Modernica in the 1990's and are currently available).

Originally the company only made mantel clocks. Grandfather clocks did not become a part of the product line until the 1960s.

The company began making curio cabinets in 1989.

The company began making wine and spirits furniture in 2004.

Trivia

• Howard Miller Clock Company owns the Kieninger Company of Germany, which makes many of the mechanical movements in Howard Miller clocks.
• During World War II, the Company joined forces with Ford Motor Company in making anti-aircraft covers.
• Howard Miller Clocks are a frequent prize on the game show The Price Is Right.
• Howard C. Miller's father Herman financially helped D. J. DePree, Herman's son-in-law, found office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller.

References

• Howard Miller History. Retrieved on 14 April, 2006.
• Classic's Howard Miller Clocks. Retrieved on 14 April, 2006.
• Herman Miller Clock Company signed by Herman Miller and D.J. DePree - Zeeland, Michigan 1927. Retrieved on 14 April, 2006.

External links

• Howard Miller website

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