Edward G. Watkins (1865-1942) Of Gardner
Founder of Simplex

One man who exemplified Gardner’s continuous industrial development into the twentieth century was Edward G. Watkins. It was just two years after the dawning of the new century when Watkins formed a corporation that became one of Gardner’s major employers. Watkins was five years old when he came to Gardner with his parents; his father was employed by the Heywood Brothers furniture manufacturing company. As a young boy, Watkins worked after school in the Heywood Brothers machine department which his father supervised. After completing his secondary education, Watkins entered Worcester Polytechnic Institute from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Upon his graduation from college, Edward Watkins joined Heywood Brothers and Co. as a plant engineer, later being promoted to master mechanic and eventually becoming chief engineer. While working for Heywood Brothers, in 1888, Watkins invented the first practical time recorder. The time recorder was a clock equipped with individually numbered push buttons which could represent each worker in a plant. Upon arriving or leaving work, employees pushed their numbered button which perforated a revolving circular time sheet, thus recording the hours of labor. Because the machine was so simple to operate, it was called “Simplex,” and as a result of its adoption, “punching the clock” has become a common phrase in American society.

Heywood Brothers not only used the Simplex at its plant, it manufactured the time recorder as part of its production line. Edward Watkins became director of the company’s recorder department, during which time he invented two improved models. Then, after a decade of production, the Heywood-Wakefield Co., successors of Heywood Brothers and Co., decided that production of time recorders was not compatible with furniture manufacturing. As a result, in 1901, Watkins organized a separate company which he incorporated the following year into the Simplex Time Recorder Co., which purchased the patent rights for the Simplex recorder from Heywood-Wakefield. Watkins became the new company’s first president and general manager. However, Watkins also remained with Heywood-Wakefield as their chief engineer until 1918, when he resigned to devote all of his energies to his own company.

Up until World War I, Simplex Time Recorder Co. consistently expanded its production. Not only did the company manufacture various models of time recorders but it also began manufacturing watchman’s clocks. Then, in 1916, Simplex acquired the W.H. Bundy Time Recorder Co. of Syracuse, New York. That company’s machinery, tools, and a number of its employees were moved to Gardner where production of the Bundy line of recorders was continued. Acquisition of Bundy required expansion of Simplex’s physical plant. As a result, in 1917, Simplex moved from its original small clapboard building into a new three-story plant on Sanborn Street.

After World War I, Watkins continued the expansion of his company. One of his most important steps was to replace the spring-operated time recorders with electric mechanisms. Various new products were also added to the company’s production line. One of these was an electric time stamp. This device was used by government agencies to record the exact time of mail arrival, and by airfields to record the arrival and departure of planes. Another product that Watkins developed was the portable watchman’s clock which eventually became commonplace in industrial security. Further, by the time of Watkins’ death in 1942, Simplex had 45 branch offices throughout the country and was considered the largest concern in the United States devoted exclusively to the manufacture of time recorder equipment.

While Edward Watkins made Simplex the largest producer of time recorders in the United States, it was his son, Curtis, who was instrumental in making the company the largest producer of time recorders in the world. Curtis G. Watkins became involved with his father’s company at an early age. During summer vacations from college, he worked in virtually every department of Simplex. Then in 1928, after leaving college, he became a permanent employee in the sales department. In this capacity, Curtis traveled throughout the United States and abroad, opening Simplex branch offices. After being with the company on a full-time basis for 10 years, he was named the general sales manager in Gardner and a vice president of the company. Then, upon his father’s death, Curtis Watkins succeeded to the post of president.

During Curtis Watkins’ tenure, Simplex increased its annual sales to $18.5 million, its employees from 200 to 2,000 and its production to over 60 types of time recorders. Besides new time recorders, Watkins also added centrally controlled time systems to Simplex’s product line. These systems were designed to be used in such facilities as schools, hospitals, factories, and public buildings.

Curtis Watkins also directed the physical expansion of Simplex. Several new buildings were added to the Gardner plant and manufacturing facilities were established overseas. Watkins also expanded the company’s sales department to include 62 offices in the United States and local offices in many of the world’s principal cities. Expansion for Simplex also meant absorption, and, in 1958, the company acquired the Time Equipment Division of International Business Machines (IBM).

Curtis Watkins’ son, Edward G. Watkins II, assumed leadership of Simplex upon his father’s death in 1967. Under his direction, the company continued to manufacture not only a great variety of time recorders and centrally controlled time systems, but also added the production of fire alarm systems. Further, a new corporate headquarters was built in Gardner and the company expanded to 210 branch offices in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, plus dealers in 72 countries. Aside from the Gardner plant, there were six other manufacturing facilities located in California, Canada, England, Australia, Argentina, and West Germany. Altogether, Simplex employed more than 4,000 people, 1,500 of who were employed at the Gardner facility.

By the end of the century there would be a turn of events for Simplex. The company began moving its operations from Gardner to a new location in the neighboring town of Westminster. Then in 2001, exactly 100 years after it was formed, Simplex sold its operations to another corporation. Even though Simplex no longer exists in Gardner many examples of its products from over the years, as well as other Simplex memorabilia, can be found in the collections of The Gardner Museum.