Back in the early 1960s' the Tates Watch Company of Massachusetts
decided to diversify so they started producing other products. Among
them were a line of expensive compasses for yachts. It turned out the
new compasses were so inaccurate that some yachtsmen ended up hundreds
of miles off course.

It is said that this is the origin of the expression, "He who has a
Tates is lost!"

Wilbur Hubbard