One of Parker's popular advertising tools for he new Duofold fountain pen was to offer dealers this clever clock with the purchase of a quantity of pens.
I always wanted this clock, was always a devoted Parker collector. About 45 years ago I was fortunate to find one. It was working, it looked magical on the wall of my pen room.
I happened to be in the promotional advertising business. I designed and produced clever items that corporations used to give to clients and suppliers.
So I had a bright idea. Make a reproduction of this famous Parker clock for Parker to use as gifts or incentives for dealers. Only problem was battery operated clocks at this time could use the rotating sweep second hand only on smaller table clocks, not the larger wall clocks because of the weight of the second hand. So the Mandarin Duofold is imprinted on the dial face. It will always be 12 seconds past the minute.
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I made two samples. One for Parker and one for me. I presented this repro clock to the Parker Marketing team, they liked it. The buyer asked for one more to give to another Marketing Team. They did not buy this clock and I never saw my proof models again. Felt bad about that.
Then I had an idea to copy the exact same style for Pen World Magazine. Clever, I thought. Sent a proof sample to the publisher as a surprise and he liked it. He purchased a few dozen to use as gifts to advertisers and friends. Problem was I forgot to keep an extra one for myself.
So now, about 45 years later I happen to see one of my Pen World Magazine clocks on eBay for a reasonable price. I bought it. Turns out it was from the same publisher of Pen World Magazine that I sold them to. He still has a few of these clocks around his house and garage.
So now i have two nice wall clocks that tell me it is the correct time to buy a Duofold and also the correct time to read Pen World magazine.
Happy Day. What goes around comes around