随着业务的发展, the novelty of living out of a van diminished, so it was time to upgrade. 艾伦买了一辆温尼贝戈房车, pulling his mobile showroom/warehouse behind it, the "Minnie Winnie" became his new home and office. In 1987 欢迎回家 magazine took notice and Allan was featured in an article about "Working Winnebago's"

The business continued to grow and reality set in, it was time to establish some roots. So the Minnie Winnie was sold, and Allan bought a building in 历史悠久的拉克罗斯市中心在第二大街125号. 就这样开始了……的旅程 拉克罗斯钟表公司.

随着业务的发展, it became apparent that a warehouse was needed, so the decision was made to dig out the basement of 拉克罗斯钟表公司. 位置. Ever the entrepreneur, Allan recruited college kids to haul the dirt using 5 gallon pails. Luckily there were plenty of recruits available between the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, 西部技术学院和维泰博.

The "Bucket Brigade" affectionately referred to the project as the “大 挖” named after the monstrous project underway in Boston, MA at the time. Always an adventure - one night while sandblasting the ceiling to get it clean, there was so much dust and debris flowing out of the building that the 拉克罗斯消防局 showed up responding to a fire call, full gear and hoses out! But in the end by digging down as far as they could, 然后浇筑水泥, 他们创造了自己的, 急需的, 可用空间.

“大挖掘”图片来自GlobeFile/1999

While Allan had established the 拉克罗斯钟表公司. 生意，他不满足于此. Through his travels wth the buseinss he met Jeff Marden from St. 路易斯,莫 伪造了 河城钟公司 专门生产布谷鸟钟的.

Allan's strong belief in quality and tradition made the acquisition of Boston's own E. 霍华德 & Co. 很容易决定. Here he focused primarily on the 时钟 side of the business. 成立于1842年. 霍华德 & Co. 仍然在 史密森学会 和 美国国家历史博物馆 as it is considered to be the oldest 时钟 manufacturer in America.

1994年对拉克罗斯钟表公司来说是忙碌的一年. 除了购买E. 霍华德 & Co., Allan also founded Infinity Instruments with Janusz Erlichman, purchased a former roller skating rink in La Crescent, MN - turning the building into offices and warehouse space. He was also busy being featured in numerous publications with his “grass roots” form of advertising-his self manned hot air balloon.

“时钟为一个家增添了一种气场. One woman told me it became the heartbeat of her home.“艾伦

The late nineties played host to one of the most controversial trials in US history, 涉及NFL超级巨星OJ辛普森. This month actually marks the 22nd anniversary of the televised trial, which featured Judge Ito’s famous hourglass timepiece, a timepiece that inspired Allan to create one of his own. Produced using wood bases from a US factory and glass and sand imported from England, the Hourglass Clock was a challenge to keep in stock.

This is the year that changed time keeping in the American marketplace with the introduction of Radio Controlled time (atomic time). 在欧洲市场上销售多年, Allan became the official US selling agent for Radio Controlled time pieces and introduced WWVB 到美国. 拉克罗斯·麦考密克的手下, the first atomic wristwatch from Wittnauer by Junghans was sold, 这只手表限量生产1只,000块, 由固体钛制成, 零售价为999美元.95. 今年也开始了 拉克罗斯钟表公司. factory, which produced numerous 时钟 designs with all of the wood casings manufactured by 约翰·皮茨.

In 1999 欧博体育官网 was born when Allan partnered with Rolf Haupt and Manfred Wu utilizing the factory in the US to manufacture the wood casings to house the atomic 时钟 movements.

With an expanding inventory, Allan purchased a new warehouse in 斯普林格罗夫，明尼苏达州. Included in that growing inventory was our first 欧博体育官网 branded Wireless Forecast Station, ws - 7054, a model that still exists in a newer form today. In the ever changing world of technology and new advancements in consumer weather consumption we continue to develop new items to meet the customer demand, 这一点在未来几个月将会很明显.

在一个销售电话 Frontgate, a suggestion was made to create a 数字 wall 时钟 with wood side panels. Already doing wood manufacturing in the US for grandfather 时钟s, Allan pursued this stylistic look creating numerous renditions of what would become a trademarked top seller in 数字 欧博体育官网公司的挂钟. The local manufacturing of the wood side panels was what set these 时钟s apart, and it remained this way for quite some time before our factories overseas were able to replicate a similar look and quality.

In addition to the birth of a trademarked look, this year 欧博体育官网 begin working as a distributor for 股本, a 时钟 wholesaler that sold SkyScan alarm 时钟s and wall 时钟s, forging a relationship that has evolved over the years and still exists today.

2002 – Was the year in which 欧博体育官网 surpassed 1 MILLION Digital Atomic Wall Clocks sold! An incredible milestone to be sure, but that didn’t stop us from raising the bar in years to come.

After 10+ years partnering with River City Cuckoo Clock Allan’s share of the company went back to Jeff Marden allowing his efforts to focus on 欧博体育官网 一场新的冒险. 欧博体育官网 entered into a licensing arrangement with 天气频道 建立气象站, 数字原子钟, 温度计, and rain gauges branded with 天气频道 logo. To no ones’ surprise, these products began appearing on retail shelves everywhere. “The tremendous name recognition and trust factor of 天气频道 adds considerable appeal to our high-performance line of weather preparedness devices. Expansion of these branded products into national retailers will dramatically increase their exposure to consumers” – Allan. 事实证明这是真的 百思买Bass Pro Shops， 和 May Department Stores among the biggest retails to jump on board, 天气频道 branded products were a huge success.

欧博体育官网 officially moved into its current 位置 here on the South side of La Crosse, WI. 这是一项庞大但必要的任务, 因为它带来了行政办公室, 客户欧博官网app下载, 销售, 图形, 仓库, 和研究 & 所有的发展都在一个屋檐下. A few years later we were able to move our downtown retail business, 拉克罗斯钟表公司. to this 位置 as well, bringing all our US operations together.

2008 saw the launch of 天气 Direct, the world's first Internet-powered personal weather system. 这是我们的第一个重大失败, and led to a technically bankrupt balance sheet for the company. According to Allan, "We were never actually told that we were bankrupt, so we just kept going." Employees took pay cuts and suppliers agreed to extend terms to keep the dream alive 和 company afloat. In retrospect, the product was ahead of its time. Smartphones and mobile devices were not what they are today, so the concept of information at the touch of one's fingertips was not on the forefront of consumers' minds.

2009 was the year we began our joint venture with 股本 Industries Corp.的子公司 Chiaphua based in Hong Kong and a company that has roots in 时钟 manufacturing dating back all the way to the 1960s. It was in this year that 欧博体育官网 shifted from being just a distributor of their products, 致合伙人. The brand was henceforth known as 股本 by La Crosse.

股本’s 仓库 moved from California to its current 位置 here in La Crosse, Wisconsin. 我们也开始与 National Institute of Standards and Technology 在这一年, who was able set up a signal testing chamber right on our company campus, 这一切都是为了帮助发展我们的 UltrAtomic 时钟. 欧博体育官网 is still the only privately owned company in the US to have access to this type of government official equipment.

We launched our monitoring system 拉克罗斯警报 which allowed the consumer to stay up-to-date on their own micro-environment through the use of the internet and later the 拉克罗斯警报 Mobile App. 这一年还出现了寒流, similar to what many states are experiencing today, 欧博体育官网 was invited to attend the NFL Monday night football game on December 9 when the Dallas Cowboys took on the Chicago Bears in Chicago, IL. We provided a professional weather system to the NFL to provide up to the minute field conditions to the announcers during the game.

The acquisition of The Geneva Clock Co’s decorative 时钟 inventory brought the company and Allan back to its 时钟 manufacturing roots. Though we had never lost the 拉克罗斯钟表公司. brand, the acquisition of Geneva was certainly viewed as a resurrection of that side of the business. 信不信由你, this merger was hashed out during a 5 minute conversation between Allan and Geneva’s brand manager, 苏珊金片.

好吧, 这让我们了解了最新的情况, and we’ve truly enjoyed sharing our journey with you over the past few months. 但我们的故事肯定不会就此结束. 本周在 消费电子欧博体育官网展 we've officially launched our newest line of innovative Connected 气象站, which offer an almost infinite number of monitoring solutions using our new 拉克罗斯景观 app. For more information about these new stations, please visit our website 在这里:http://exogyra.viensvois.com/products/monitoring-view or continue to follow us here on 脸谱网 for updates and other company news. Thanks again for being a part of the 欧博体育官网 family, we’re glad you’re here.