NOTE: I'm working on the following as an article as well as an upcoming YouTube Video. I'm posting here just for your information and to see what you think!
It never ceases to amaze me how obscure and obtuse information about flip clocks can be. Recently I've seen several sellers tying to unload their Cosmo Time Flip Clocks on eBay and Etsy.com for crazy high prices. I've looked at these just out of curiosity, primarily because I thought it crazy that they were priced so high. But finally I decided to try to discover some background information about this Cosmo Time company and their clocks.
What a mess.
But finally, after brushing up a little on my Spanish, I was able to pin down more or less, who, what where and why there was a Cosmo Time Corporation, and what may have become of them.
Google searches, not surprisingly were helpful, but only to help fill in the gaps. There's no freely available "History of the Cosmo Time Corporation" on the internet. It was Newspapers.com that coughed up an article in the Spanish language newspaper, El Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) 06 Jul 1980 page 12, that helped me learn the basics about this company.
History of Cosmo Time Corporation
Cosmo Time Corporation was based in Miami, Florida and founded in 1975 by a group of Cuban immigrants, Joel Newman, Victor Suárez and Jorge Rodrigues. These three men left Juliette Electronics of Miami (as you may know - also makers of flip clocks - primarily flip clock radios) to form their own company. The company initially focused on the manufacture of clocks and lamps in their Miami factory. But in 1978 they went back to their roots (from Juliette) and began the production of digital clocks. Cosmo Time opened an electronics plant in Hong Kong initially, then moved production to China (because the labor costs were cheaper, according to the article).
Their business plan seemed to be to keep their clocks priced lower than their competitors (who were, according to the article: General Electric, Talley Industries, and Sunbeam). For this reason, according to company president, Joel Newman, their lowest price digital clock retailed for $9.95 which he claimed was 10 dollars lower than their competitors.
What happened from here becomes a little obscure. But we can determined the company's address from online information from the Federal Communications Commission:
Cosmo Time Corporation
Full Company Details: Cosmo Time Corporation - CAZ
Company Code: CAZ
Address:
Cosmo Time Corporation
16501 NW 16 Court
Miami, FL 33169
The code CAZ is called a Grantee Code and was assigned to Cosmo Time Corporation as the prefix of the FCC Registration Numbers that they would be assigned for the production of wireless
equipment. Each approved piece of equipment would have a unique identifier, but all would include "CAZ." Their last application with the FCC was on March 3 1990.
Now what's curious, is that there was another business formed in 3/17/1983 called "Cosmo Communications Corporation."
According to Radiomuseum.org Cosmo Communications Corporation was an "Importer of far-east made consumer electronics." Radiomuseum's information corresponds with that from SEC documents found online and lists the corporation's address as "16501 N.W. 16 Court, Miami, Florida 33169" - the same as Cosmo Time - It doesn't take a private detective to figure that the two were very closely related. Similar name, same address - too much of a coincidence.
The newspaper article (1980) questions what the next step would be for Cosmo Time Corporation, suggesting that perhaps the company would eventually go public (sell shares on the stock exchange). It is likely that is what they did in 1983 under the name "Cosmo Communications Corporation."
Eventually, there is no more mention of "Cosmo Time Corporation" - it seems it was absorbed by "Cosmo Communications Corporation" no later than 1990 (the time of the last FCC application), possibly earlier. Further investigation reveals that the company vacated the property at 16501 NW 16th Ct (this is now occupied by an unrelated company called "SG Glass Industries LLC").
Today, according to Bloomberg.com "Cosmo Communications Corporation imports, markets, and distributes consumer electronic products. The Company's products include televisions, VCRs, digital alarm clocks, quartz alarm clocks, quartz wall clocks, clock radios, and combination products such as clock radio telephones. Cosmo also imports, markets, and distributes a line of audio products."
The company headquarters is located in Canada (Unit 2, 55 Travail Road Markham, ON Canada). At the time of this writing, their website unfortunately had been hacked.
So turning our attention back to the Cosmo Time flip clocks, we see that they were made in Japan (no mention of Japan in the newspaper article). However, as many of you may realize, it was very common for Japanese makers of flip clocks to make the clocks, brand them with the US company's name, who would then import and sell them to the flip clock hungry masses in the United States.
Perhaps all this information does nothing for you. I'm sorry about that, but for me, I like to know a little history about my flip clocks. Although, I don't yet own a Cosmo flip clock, but ... time will tell.
It never ceases to amaze me how obscure and obtuse information about flip clocks can be. Recently I've seen several sellers tying to unload their Cosmo Time Flip Clocks on eBay and Etsy.com for crazy high prices. I've looked at these just out of curiosity, primarily because I thought it crazy that they were priced so high. But finally I decided to try to discover some background information about this Cosmo Time company and their clocks.
What a mess.
But finally, after brushing up a little on my Spanish, I was able to pin down more or less, who, what where and why there was a Cosmo Time Corporation, and what may have become of them.
Google searches, not surprisingly were helpful, but only to help fill in the gaps. There's no freely available "History of the Cosmo Time Corporation" on the internet. It was Newspapers.com that coughed up an article in the Spanish language newspaper, El Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) 06 Jul 1980 page 12, that helped me learn the basics about this company.
History of Cosmo Time Corporation
Cosmo Time Corporation was based in Miami, Florida and founded in 1975 by a group of Cuban immigrants, Joel Newman, Victor Suárez and Jorge Rodrigues. These three men left Juliette Electronics of Miami (as you may know - also makers of flip clocks - primarily flip clock radios) to form their own company. The company initially focused on the manufacture of clocks and lamps in their Miami factory. But in 1978 they went back to their roots (from Juliette) and began the production of digital clocks. Cosmo Time opened an electronics plant in Hong Kong initially, then moved production to China (because the labor costs were cheaper, according to the article).
Their business plan seemed to be to keep their clocks priced lower than their competitors (who were, according to the article: General Electric, Talley Industries, and Sunbeam). For this reason, according to company president, Joel Newman, their lowest price digital clock retailed for $9.95 which he claimed was 10 dollars lower than their competitors.
What happened from here becomes a little obscure. But we can determined the company's address from online information from the Federal Communications Commission:
Cosmo Time Corporation
Full Company Details: Cosmo Time Corporation - CAZ
Company Code: CAZ
Address:
Cosmo Time Corporation
16501 NW 16 Court
Miami, FL 33169
The code CAZ is called a Grantee Code and was assigned to Cosmo Time Corporation as the prefix of the FCC Registration Numbers that they would be assigned for the production of wireless
Now what's curious, is that there was another business formed in 3/17/1983 called "Cosmo Communications Corporation."
According to Radiomuseum.org Cosmo Communications Corporation was an "Importer of far-east made consumer electronics." Radiomuseum's information corresponds with that from SEC documents found online and lists the corporation's address as "16501 N.W. 16 Court, Miami, Florida 33169" - the same as Cosmo Time - It doesn't take a private detective to figure that the two were very closely related. Similar name, same address - too much of a coincidence.
The newspaper article (1980) questions what the next step would be for Cosmo Time Corporation, suggesting that perhaps the company would eventually go public (sell shares on the stock exchange). It is likely that is what they did in 1983 under the name "Cosmo Communications Corporation."
Eventually, there is no more mention of "Cosmo Time Corporation" - it seems it was absorbed by "Cosmo Communications Corporation" no later than 1990 (the time of the last FCC application), possibly earlier. Further investigation reveals that the company vacated the property at 16501 NW 16th Ct (this is now occupied by an unrelated company called "SG Glass Industries LLC").
Today, according to Bloomberg.com "Cosmo Communications Corporation imports, markets, and distributes consumer electronic products. The Company's products include televisions, VCRs, digital alarm clocks, quartz alarm clocks, quartz wall clocks, clock radios, and combination products such as clock radio telephones. Cosmo also imports, markets, and distributes a line of audio products."
The company headquarters is located in Canada (Unit 2, 55 Travail Road Markham, ON Canada). At the time of this writing, their website unfortunately had been hacked.
So turning our attention back to the Cosmo Time flip clocks, we see that they were made in Japan (no mention of Japan in the newspaper article). However, as many of you may realize, it was very common for Japanese makers of flip clocks to make the clocks, brand them with the US company's name, who would then import and sell them to the flip clock hungry masses in the United States.
Perhaps all this information does nothing for you. I'm sorry about that, but for me, I like to know a little history about my flip clocks. Although, I don't yet own a Cosmo flip clock, but ... time will tell.
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