The maker of the Yankees' 'official' clock files for bankruptcy after smartwatch bet backfires

• E. Gluck Corporation, the maker of Armitron watches, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• The decades-old company struggled as consumers shifted from traditional watches to smartwatches.
• Armitron has touted itself as the "official timekeeper" of the New York Yankees.

The decades-old watchmaker behind the "official" clock at the home of the New York Yankees filed for bankruptcy last week.

E. Gluck Corporation, the maker of the Armitron watch line and the manufacturer of timepieces for fashion brands like Anne Klein and Nine West, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Manhattan federal bankruptcy court last Monday.

The family-owned company, founded by late Holocaust survivor Eugen Gluck in 1956, said in legal filings that it has been squeezed as consumers have drifted away from traditional watches, thanks to the rise of smartwatches and other devices.

This financial strain, the watchmaker said, was compounded by its own failed expansion into the smartwatch accessories market.

At its peak, the New York-based company generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue through brand licensing deals as well as distribution to department stores, off-price retailers, club stores, and more, its chief financial officer, Adam Gelnick, said in court papers.

The company's website lists name brands like Juicy Couture and Vince Camuto among the labels it has worked with. A Google search shows Armitron watches can be purchased at places like Amazon, Walmart, and JCPenny, and tend to cost between $30 and $85.

"For many years, this mix created a stable and profitable foundation," wrote Glenick. "Yet, in recent years, management recognized that traditional watches were a mature, slow-growth category, increasingly pressured by shifts in consumer behavior and the rise of smart devices."

As of October 31, the company owed more than it was worth, with over $36 million in liabilities versus just under $36 million in assets, court documents show.

Over 30 years with the Yankees

The company's bankruptcy filings list the Yankees among its 20 largest creditors with unsecured claims. E. Gluck owes the Major League Baseball team $590,000 in contract damages, court papers said.

E. Gluck's ties to the Yankees stretch back decades. Armitron, the company's proprietary brand, has touted itself as the baseball team's "official timekeeper" since an Armitron clock has sat above the scoreboard at the Bronx's Yankee Stadium for more than 30 years.

Armitron has even previously produced Yankees-branded watches.

In a December 2024 post on the official Facebook page of the 27-time World Series champions, Armitron was described as "an Official timepiece of The New York Yankees."

Representatives for the Yankees did not respond to a request for comment by Business Insider for this story, nor did the bankruptcy attorney for E. Gluck.

Smartwatch bet backfires

In an effort to diversify its business, E. Gluck acquired WITHit in 2021, a company specializing in smartwatch and wearable tech accessories.

E. Gluck hoped that WITHit would help push the company into "faster-growing product categories," Glenick wrote in court papers.

However, the deal "did not deliver the benefits that management anticipated," wrote the CFO.

The smartwatch accessories market "proved more fragmented, competitive and difficult to scale than projected," Glenick wrote.

Sales fell, and margins were further eroded due to supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as tariffs and increased freight costs, Glenick wrote.

Through the Chapter 11 process, E. Gluck plans to shed "unfavorable service contracts" tied to the WITHit acquisition and "unwind operational redundancies that never integrated cleanly with the core watch business," Glenick wrote.