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Advertisement From Farm And Ranch Magazine, 1912 - South Bend Watch Company
December 14, 1912
VOL. 31. No. 50
(.JPG image; 340x541; 53 KB).
Information About The South Bend Watch Company
South Bend, Indiana 1903 - 1929
The South Bend Watch Company was formed by three brothers, George, Clement and John M. Studebaker after their purchase of the Columbus Watch Company. It produces 60,000 watches (at its peak) and employed 600 workers.
With the coming of the Great Depression era, South Bend found itself struggling with deliquent accounts and changing times due to its failure to follow the market in production of men's wrist watches. The company never recovered, due to both events. South Bend laid off its employees (about 300) in November of 1929 and declared that the plant would close by January 1, 1930. It never reopened.
The South Bend facility was eventually sold. In later years it becamse a warehouse, a soft drink bottling facility, a center for the Army Reserve, and a home for several other businesses. The old building burned on July 8, 1957.