Chrysler featured its own steering wheel clocks from 1954 to ’58, though ’53 models could be retrofitted. They were available across all the brands and included the Moparmatic, the Chryslermatic, the Plymouthmatic, the Dodgematic, and the DeSotomatic, each featuring a 15-jewel “DK14” Gazda movement in clocks made by another Swiss company, Benrus. They were either factory- or dealer-installed options, and, at $49.95, they weren’t cheap, especially compared to the $12–$15 an optional dash clock cost.
A red pointer on the crystal could be rotated to a specific place to measure elapsed driving time. For marginal nighttime visibility, hands and dial markings were painted with radium. According to Exline, because Dodge changed its horn ring design in 1955, the clock option was 1953–54 only, which makes the Dodgematic-branded clocks the rarest of these rare oddities.
Unlike the MAAR, the Benrus units fit easily into existing steering wheels. Installation was as simple as removing the center ornament with a quarter turn and then putting the clock in its place.
“The MAAR movement was interesting because it was gyroscopic,” Exline says. “So it worked with acceleration and braking, not just the turning of the steering wheel. You could also rotate the crystal on the face of it to hand-wind the mechanism.”
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