Wheels: Keeping time in your car

If time goes by too fast, then car clocks might have a chance to keep up. Clocks have kept time moving since scheduled transportation has been around. The classic image of a railroad conductor isn’t complete without a stopwatch, and stagecoaches pulled by horse teams even featured rugged clocks to help stay on schedule.

When the automobile began to make inroads, a timepiece was the first and sometimes only instrument installed, according to Autoweek. The Waltham Clock Co., established in 1885, just south of us in Waltham, Mass., a pioneer in the mass production of watches and clocks, sold their first car clock in 1910 and up until 1940, they made nearly half of all car clocks sold. Waltham Clock Co. made notable watches carried by such influential people as Abe Lincoln and Charles Lindbergh, who relied on a Waltham Clock on his history-making solo flight across the Atlantic. Scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla — yup, that Tesla — worked in collaboration with Waltham when he patented the first speedometer.