The Bundy Manufacturing Company was a 19th Century American manufacturer of time keeping devices that went through a series of mergers, eventually becoming International Business Machines. The company was founded by the Bundy brothers.
Willard L. Bundy was born in 1846 in Otsego NY.
His family later moved to Auburn NY, where he worked as a jeweler and invented a time-recording clock in 1888. He later obtained patents of many mechanical devices. However, he split with his brother and business associates about these patents, wanting to keep them for himself and his family. He moved to Syracuse and purchased the Dey Time Recording Company, later renaming it the International Time Recording Company. This company later failed.
Harlow E. Bundy was born in 1856 in Auburn NY. He was a graduate of Hartwick College. He died after retiring from business in 1915 in 1916 in Pasadena CA.
The two brothers established the Bundy Manufacturing Company in 1889, in Binghamton NY. The clock was supposed to eliminate the need for timekeepers and watchmen, who would be required to insure that workers were diligent in performing their work. The original Bundy Manufacturing Company employed less than a dozen workers.
The Bundy Manufacturing Company relocated to Endicott NY in 1900. They merged with the Frick Manufacturing Company and the Standard Time Stamp Company. They acquired the Chicago Time Register Company. Then known as the International Time Recording Company, they acquired the Del Ray Register Company and the Syracuse Time Recording Company. In 1911, they became the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. In 1924, the company was renamed International Business Machines (IBM).
