When I was working on my Lawson clock book, the plan was to print it on demand. This have made a less expensive book (my cost would have been $12-14) and mistakes or omissions could be corrected on the spot. But when I saw the photo quality of POD that plan went out the window, and with it my dreams of great riches since I pay almost $23 per book. To add insult to injury, Moderne Time’s minimum print run is 250 books, so the chance of a revised edition is about the same as finding a Lawson Zephyr still in the box. Some day, the book itself will be a collectable and like It’s author, a true vintage item.

The good news is that the photos look great and I don’t seem to have missed much. There have been some oddballs that I call transitional models, where the same model number was used for different clocks or bits of trim were shared between clocks. This was probably due to changes in company ownership or records lost during the war. Or maybe they were just dead set against standardization, at least until Henry Fenenbock stepped in.

I’m working on a post on the “transitional” clocks, plus a few that were produced but have never turned up. But for now, here are two clocks that didn’t make it into the book because I didn’t know they existed.

First up, the Lawson 306. Lawson’s 206, with It’s handsome pillars, is a standout Art Deco clock, scarce and desirable. But it turns out there’s an even rarer variation, the #306. Over the years, I’d seen what looked like a shorter 206 but I thought it was the perspective of the photo; take a photo looking down, and the subject looks shorter. But the #306 is a different clock.

Lawson 306, photo courtesy of Budd Goldman

Another model 306, curently for sale online.

The 206 (below) uses the “box” common to all 200 series clocks. This is taller and narrower than most other Lawsons. The 306 (above) uses the lower, more elongated case found on the long running 300 series. The other reason the 206 sits higher is that It’s rear rests on a single large ball foot, unique among Lawson clocks, as far as I know. The 306 sits on four small ball feet typical of early Lawson cases.

Lawson model 206

Lawson model 206, rear. Since this clock is narrower and sits higher, the pillars are larger).

Lawson model 306, rear.

Which to choose, should you be lucky enough to face this dilemma? Well, the 3-foot design of the 206 wins on the coolness factor, but the 306 is so rare it even slipped by the author of the Lawson clock book. By the way, there’s a 306 for sale on the 1st dibs site (as of May 2024). It isn’t cheap but it’s genuinely rare.

Turing to ultra-rare, rarer than rare, the kind of rare that makes eBay’s “rare” seem commonplace, the Lawson #75 does appear in the book–but it turns out the model 75, which I think looks like a Meso-American pyramid, has a close relative, the Lawson #75x. Either one of these would suit Robert Stacy-Judd (or Indiana Jones) but the #75x is larger and has a flip-up lid which reveals a hidden cigarette compartment!

A beautifully restored Lawson model 75x.

Not a clock, but the same idea, I think.

Lawson 75x with flip-up top for smokes, and the smaller “regular” 75.

From the rear. Note that these are extremely early (1933-34) Lawsons with a unique, taller rear door and off-center locking knob.

The only other model 75 I know of, showing the same door, so this is how they were made.

Front view

The 75x is one of only two Lawson clocks with a cigarette container, the other being model #212.

One of only two Lawson models with cigarette storage, the other being model 212.My thanks to Budd Goldman, Frank Novak and Robert Goldman for the photos of these (truly) rare clocks.