Classic Car Watches

What Henry Ford did for the manufacturing of automobiles, a man named Harley Earl did for automobile design.  Earl worked for General Motors, and was the designer behind the innovative sports cars of the 1950s.  Perhaps Earl’s most renowned project was the Chevrolet Corvette, named after a small but maneuverable fighting frigate.  The corvette project was nearly canned by GM prior to the release of their first V8 engine.  The new engine coupled with other new technologies allowed the corvette to transformfrom an impractical sports car to a true performer. 

Today the corvette has become a symbol of speed, power, and wealth, and sports a full line of products and paraphernalia including stationary, towels, clothing apparel, and even timepieces like watches and the Corvette clock.

That’s what Dodge’s official site says their vehicles are all about.  Dodge is an American brand of cars, SUVs and trucks, made and sold by Chrysler all over the world.   Founded in 1900, Dodge is well-known today for its contributions to the classic muscle cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s.  They sold automobiles suitable for racing as well as economy models during these years, even partnering with Mitsubishi at one point to attempt optimum market expansion and visibility.   Everything changed at Dodge, and indeed for all American automobile makers, when the oil crisis hit in 1973.  Their more economical “downsized” product lines were not as popular as the muscle cars had been, and in 1979, Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca requested Congress’ help in saving Dodge from filing bankruptcy.  By the 1990s, Chrysler had repaid the debt and chose Dodge as the division to start making waves in the car marketplace, which they did by unveiling the Dodge Viper.  Over the years the success of Dodge trucks waxed and waned, and during the 1970s the company dropped its medium- to heavy-duty models, a category in which they have recently begun to participate again.

Dodge actually received a great deal of attention and increased sales due to the 1990s  TV show “Walker, Texas Ranger”, which used Dodge’s most current models as well as the Viper, Ram, and minivan.  During the 1980s, Dodge also imported small pickups from Mitsubishi until the sales of the popular Dodge Dakota rendered the imported trucks irrelevant.  When Daimer and Chrysler merged in the late 1990s, Dodge was able to expand many of its product lines and experiment with new ones, such as the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter line of vans, which has become utilized by leading freight companies such as FedEx and UPS in recent years.  The Dodge Durango minivan has proven quite popular in recent years, in part because its size places it right between its competitors.  The current Ram’s head logo was standardized on all Dodge vehicles as of 1996 with the exception of the Viper.  Get a collectible Dodge clock or watch to match your favorite vehicle!

An earlier blog addressed the history of United States freeway Route 66, but didn’t mention the famous song “Route 66”.  American songwriter Bobby Troup wrote the song in 1946 while driving west from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, admitting he only added “Don’t forget Winona” because it rhymed with “Flagstaff, Arizona”.   Nat King Cole had a big hit with the song the year it was written, and over the years, the song has become a pop standard that many artists have covered, including the Cramps, Buckwheat Zydeco, Mel Torme, Bob Dylan, Depeche Mode, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, Rolling Stones, Perry Como, and many more.

The song “Route 66” was featured in two major 2006 movies, “RV” starring Robin Williams, and the animated “Cars”, featuring Chuck Berry’s rendition as well as a newer version by John Mayer.  If you can’t stop humming that song and you already have a copy to sing along with, you might want to consider a Route 66 clock in fond tribute to your own road trips–both past and future.

Devoted to seeing the USA in your Chevrolet?  Won’t own anything but a Toyota?  Crazy about your Ford truck?  When you can’t be behind the wheel enjoying the ride, automobile watches are one way to show your love for your favorite vehicle.

If you don’t like to wear watches, why not a mantle or wall clock with your choice of car emblem?  Consider something with a little neon or something extra shiny to light your way around the house at night, but still keep you on schedule—just like those other finely tuned machines.
 

The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to consistently measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units, the day, the lunar month, and the year. Such measurement requires devices. Devices operating on several different physical processes have been used over the millennia, culminating in the clocks of today.

The sundial, which measures the time of day by the direction of shadows cast by the sun, was widely used in ancient times. A well-designed sundial can measure local solar time with reasonable accuracy, and sundials continued to be used to monitor the performance of clocks until the modern era. However, its practical limitations - it requires the sun to shine and does not work at all during the night - encouraged the use of other techniques for measuring time.

Today, clocks come in the variant forms, such as digital watches or novelty wall clocks that can fit an individual’s personality.