I noticed last night, on one of the pages of ads I scanned, there was one, mid 20s?, referencing South Bend and a purple ribbon standard of some sort with a watch chain included.

Does anyone have an actual South Bend Purple Ribbon watch device? I have noticed occasional watch ribbons, when searching around for watch chain images, but that I remember, most I believe I’ve noticed have been black.

Any comments or information to add?

Leo Horishny
Sun Valley, NV

Hi Leo
Not sure what you were looking at but to my knowledge there was never a purple ribbon "device". What the purple ribbon refers to is a cloth ribbon that was over the front of South Bend watches in the original display box. Just a marketing thing. I don't have an available photo but if you search "South Bend Watch Purple Ribbon" I assume one will come up.

Thank you both. I have to track the ad down again, I'm remembering what I saw different and what I think I was seeing was a watch fob, with a swallowtail edge, that was a purple ribbon.

Maybe I misremembering what I saw, but I thought there was a purple ribbon watch fob. That was the "device" I was thinking of. I'll have to dive back in and try to find it. It was a circa 1920s era drawing, as I recall.

Those purple ribbon photos are cool looking though, definitely a distinctive ad campaign!

Leo

I don't think the purple ribbon was anything more than a marketing ploy, as shown in this ad.

That seems to be the case[sic]. A clever one though.