High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Simon Willard (clocks) were produced in Massachusetts in the Grafton and Roxbury, near Boston, by Simon Willard (April 3, 1753 – August 30, 1848), a celebrated U.S. clockmaker. Among his many innovations and timekeeping improvements, Simon Willard is best known for inventing the eight-day patent timepiece that came to be known as the gallery or banjo clock.