History of Sears Outboard Motors ;

Sears-Roebuck got into the retail outboard business through their catalog and stores about 1913 or 1914.  It's Motorgo kickers were produced by a number of firms, namely Lockwood Ash motors and Caille outboards to be badged as their Motorgo.  Around 1934 Sears outboard brand became the Waterwitch, Which were supplied by Muncie Gear Works (Neptune), and a few leftover Johnsons.

Somewhere near 1936 the agreement with Muncie expired.  Kissel Automobile Co. was forced into making outboards after their luxury automobile business dried up in the Depression. Sears struck up a agreement with Kissel to build outboard motors. These outboards were, for the most part, simple no-frills affairs offered for about 30% less than similar offerings from a major brand.  Reasonably well-built, the Waterwitch motors proved to Sears that selling outboard motors could be a profitable business.  Sporting unusual styling said to be from the pen of renowned designer Raymond Lowey, the Waterwitch motors were very successful - we know this because a lot of Kissel-made Waterwitch outboards still show up today.   One of the most exotic Waterwitches were the "twin pod" (Mae West) fuel tank motors.

A Waterwitch single (with reliability issues) was featured prominently in Robert McCloskey's 1952 Caldecott Honor book for children; ONE MORNING IN MAINE!

After WWII ended, Kissel was purchased by the West Bend Aluminum Company and Sears asked West Bend to come up with a new Elgin outboard by 1946.  There were some (a few thousand) Waterwitches assembled from parts by West Bend before the new Sears Elgin brand got into production.  Here, Sears and West Bend worked together to develop their outboard product line, one that fit the Sears consumer's budget, lifestyle and Sears' guidelines for quality.  Certainly no mass-retailer ever had a closer relationship with an outboard supplier than Sears and West Bend.  This relationship was highly successful and profitable for 12 years.  Their agreement remained exclusive through 1959, so much so that West Bend did not market motors in the USA under their own name until 1955.  But it was the apple green small (1 1/2 to 7 1/2 hp) Elgin motors from 1946 to 1955 that are best known today.

In 1959 Sears started a relationship with Scott-Atwater, by then known as Scott McCulloch – this would last through the late 1960s.  In 1964 the Elgin name was dropped in the USA and replaced with that of spokesperson Ted Williams or with the Sears or Gamefisher names.
 

 In the mid 1960s West Bend supplied motors to Sears' competition Montgomery Wards.  In 1965 West Bend ended up selling out to Chrysler who became a major player in the world of outboards.  In the 1980s, after Chrysler sold their outboard business to US Marine/Force, Sears once again offered private brand Gamefisher motors - many of which had been Elgins 20 years before, things had come full circle!

Some of the late small Gamefishers were made by Tanaka of Japan, which can be identified by the model number prefix of 298! 

 However, to this day, most outboard people always think of the West Bend-made Elgin motors when the topic of Sears and outboards comes up.

 For a link to more information  click here  https://yankeeaomci.org/feature_outboard-2.htm  , here for a Facebook link  https://www.facebook.com/people/Elgin-Outboards/100057081684306/

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