Permanent Collection

Permanent Collection of Bundy Time Recording Clocks.

In the wake of the industrial revolution, the way in which humans understood and organized time shifted. In the industrial workplace, time became a unit of measuring work performance; a worker’s productivity could be measured by judging their output versus the amount of time spent working. A machine that could accurately record a worker’s time would have been especially useful.

In 1888, a jeweler named Willard Bundy patented such a device.

His brother Harlow E. Bundy, an attorney and entrepreneur saw a market for the device, and the Bundy Manufacturing Company was born in 1889. The time-recording clocks were greatly successful, one of their biggest clients being the U.S. Postal Service.

The company was reorganized as International Time Recording Company in 1906, and moved to Endicott. After two more mergers and reorganizations, the company became International Business Machines (IBM).