1883-12-19ak

For the Hamiltonians, it was a new way to attract customers to a downtown clothing store.

On December 19, 1883, the Spectator carried a detailed description of the Oak promotion :

“The inducements held out to purchasers now-a-days are absolutely wonderful. It can hardly be said that if one buys a set of furniture, a house and lot will be thrown in.; but it is a literal fact that in Hamilton and Toronto, one may buy a suit of clothes and have a watch thrown in. This is done at the stores known in each city as Oak Hall. Whosoever at either of these places of business buys a suit of clothes, valued at $12, will be presented with a very neat silver-plated, stem-winding watch. The watches are really very nice articles, and keep excellent time. They are made by the Waterbury, Conn. Watch company, which turns out a thousand watches every working day in the year, so great is the demand. The cases are made of nickel, silver-plated; and when the plating wears away, as it will in time, the cases still look white and clean. Every watch is carefully tested before leaving the factory, and run for six days in varying positions.

“Business has been so brisk at the two houses named, and sales have been so satisfactory that the enterprising proprietors have decided to make a Christmas present of one of these really beautiful watches to each purchaser during the holidays. Of course, it is purely a business speculation on their part; for, although, they cannot afford to make so valuable a present out of the narrow margin of profit realized on a suit of clothes, they hope that the standing advertisement which each watch will prove to be, will in time repay them for the present outlay by bringing many new and permanent customers to them, till the name Oak Hall becomes a household word throughout the country. The proprietors of the two Oak Halls have been liberal advertisers in the past; their advertising has attracted hosts of customers to them, and those customers have been retained by reasonableness of price and excellence of goods. The belief is that each new customer secured by the present of a watch will more than repay the donors through future business. In that expectation, the first consignment of watches to Oak Hall in this city was received on Monday, each neatly set in a satin-lined box. They are known as the Waterbury watches, series C. A complete collection of the various parts is sold by the company, so that there will be no difficulty in having repairs made at a trifling cost.

“If, during the holidays, a tremendous crowd should be observed on James street, in this city, it will not be a meeting of electors listening to the pleadings of civic statesmen; it will be a throng seeking admission to Oak Hall, intending to buy a suit of clothes and to receive a present of a nickel-cased, silver-plated, stem-winder watch.”¹

¹ “Giving Away Watches : Time is an Element in this Contract”

Hamilton Spectator.  December 19, 1883.