The Watling collection

The Watling Collection

Thomas White Burns Watling 1862-1943

Watling's history in the slot business is a little different from most of the manufacturers. For a start, they enter the story very early on. Thomas Watling was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 24th august 1862 but must have soon moved to the USA for he was in a position to found the Watling Manufacturing Co in 1889 at the age of just 27. From the start they were into gambling machines similar to the early Callie and Mills spinning disc style of machines and there is no mention of them making their famous coin-operated weight scales until 1902. (For more on Watling scales visit our "Penny weight scales" section)

Through the '20s and early 30's their slots mirrored those of the other big makers in looks, where they differed from the others at this time was they chose not to keep changing their designs but, with minor changes, based all their machines on the Blue seal design. By the mid-1930s this policy was clearly hurting their sales, in the first few years of this decade they released more new scale designs than slots for the first time and the new "Gold award Vendor" and "Jackpot" machines launched in 1933 had their prices slashed to $75 each a year after their launch in an attempt to increase sales.

the 1933 jackpot & (Baby)Gold Vendor

To their credit Watling, still being run by Tom Watling, took steps to fix the problem with a spectacular new design, The Rol-A-Top. This highly ornate machine must have stolen the show in 1935. The machine was preceded by the "Treasury" a very similar machine but lacking the round coin escalator which was to become the Rol-A-Top's outstanding feature. Originally called the "Rol-A-Tor" no one seems to know for sure why it became the "Rol-A-Top" the most likely reason for the change would be the original name made no sense to players were as "Rol-A-Top" at least appeared to relate to the round escalator, another reason put forward is that the original name was simply a mistake. Either way, the name was changed without too much trouble by removing the lower part of the "R" from the casting making it a "P".

The trouble with this machine was a combination of it being a big success and the companies continued reluctance to redesign meant that this machine, all be it in several variants, would remain their flagship machine right up to the end of their slot machine producing days.

On March 3rd 1943 Tom Watling died aged 80 and his four sons, who were to all intents running the business by then, took full control, the eldest, John, became CEO with Bill running the scales division and Walter the slots, Burns Watling handled the admin. In reality, all four were at that time running a munitions factory as the slot industry was already in a slump during WW2 due to the lack of aluminium and customers was closed down altogether by the government in 1942 for the duration and switched to war production. Watling threw themselves wholeheartedly into this becoming one of the smallest companies to win the prestigious Army and Navy "E" award for war production in June 1943.

After the war, the company switched back to slot production but their designs were looking outdated by this time and the last Rol-A-Top, the checkerboard, was launched in 1947. Only the range of scales continued to be developed after Feb 1947 with the weight and fortune-telling range being the best sellers. The last Watling machine to be released was one of these scales in 1960.

Much of the tooling and spare parts from the slot division was eventually sold to the Bell-Fruit-Co in the UK.

Watling produced over 166 different products over almost 70 years and the Rol-o-top remains a much sort after machine by collectors today.

A selection of Watling Machines 1889- 1960

Floor Standing "Big Six" Counter top "Brownie"

Cupid with Gum strip vendor all I know about this strange machine is

it was made by Watling

3 Reel Vendor single Reel "Big Six"

this machine looks to be an upgrade of This machine is particularly interesting as it

the single reel seen on the right appears to be an attempt to convert their earlier

"spinning Disc" machine into a slot cased version

Blue Seal Blue Seal Twin Fancy Front

this machine is owned by one of our registered members

The Gold Seal and one of the tokens it used, the token is not as politically incorrect as it looks at first sight,the Swastika on the token is a Buddhist good luck sign ,The Nazi version has the arms pointing the other way,even so,later versions of the token dropped the Swastika but kept the same basic design