Once upon a time a long long time ago there was collaboration between a flagging watch firm giant, Ingersoll - Waterbury Watch Company, and a company that needed to find more innovative merchandising outlets for an increasingly popular filming industry, Walt Disney Productions. Thus came about the birth of the Mickey Mouse Watch for boys, launched at the 1933 Chicago Exposition 'Century of Progress'.
The watch's pin lever movement was surplus left over from the Great War. Initially marketed with new casings by a struggling Ingersoll Company in the '20s and '30s Depression to a disinterested public. The opportunity to regenerate a failing industry and endorse a popular new entertainment genre at low cost was seized by Herman Kamen, a successful merchandising promoter recruited by Walt Disney to find novel ways to market the Disney brand using the iconic Mickey Mouse.
The Mickey Mouse Watch was born, eagerly supported by an adoring public which saw the humor of the Disney Films as a means of escaping the dark dismal days bourn throughout this period.
The series of Mickey watches that were produced by this new collaboration consisted of wrist watch and pocket watch time pieces with the animated image of Mickey Mouse hands displaying the time and novel rotating seconds disc displaying three small figures of chasing Mickeys.
Throughout the following years from its inception there were subtle changes made to the watches and their packaging which allows us to precisely date them today.
The Mickey Mouse Watch was also marketed in Britain in '34 by Ingersoll of London, who adopted a distinctly different design to the US version. Targeting a smaller market the English Mickey Mouse Watch was produced in smaller volumes. Marked 'Foreign' two versions were produced along with a wrist watch, being rarer than the American counterpart these are now extremely collectible.
The Ingersoll Mickey Mouse Watch continued throughout the '40s and '50s. In the '60s Ingersoll transfered to brands such as US Time and Timex, producing new classics from this period, such as the famous Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Mod Watches.
At the beginning of the '70s Elgin National Industries took over manufacture of the Disney Watch and names such as Helbros (famous for the Backwards Goofy Watch and the Electric Mickey Watch) and Bradley Time Division (producers of the retro Pie Eye Mickey Mouse Watch) continued production of popular new designs for the market.
By the mid '80s the Bradley Time Division with the advances of the Quartz Watch produced a few Mickey Quartz Watch designs before being succeeded by Lorus (a subsidiary of Seiko) with its numerous designs.
Seiko and Pedre took over licenses of the Mickey Watch in the late '80s producing quartz replicas of the old classics, complete with replicated packaging as a tribute to the original Disney merchandise.
Fossil and Colibri also developed there own quality collectible Mickeys along with Disney Theme Parks' own Disney Time Works.
To date there are numerous other collectible Mickeys which are not mentioned in this brief chronology, we would welcome any contribution or amendments (accredited), either as examples (pics) or facts.
We buy and occasionally sell collectable Mickey Mouse Watches as illustrated on this site. We would gladly consider any worthy Mickey timepiece for valuation, sale or purchase.
Many thanks