Collectors of comic-character watches do not much care what time it is so long as the big and little hands sport four-fingered yellow gloves, and Mickey Mouse in short red pants and oversize shoes adorns the watch face. But this is only part of the story. When Mickey Mouse, as drawn by Disney's legendary artist Ub Iwerks, was licensed by the Disney organization in the 1920s to the Waterbury Clock Company, which produced watches under the name Ingersoll, he kicked off a craze for comic-character watches that is still ticking. It includes not only comic characters but western radio stars, baseball heroes, superheroes, and even political personalities (like Dan Quayle, whose watch's numbers are mixed up). And that is not all. Anyone who sent in box tops for a 1968 Ritz Crackers watch that is in good condition — perhaps mint, in a box — has a classic of sorts, worth as much as $900.
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Jump ahead to 1928, when Walt Disney, the son of a Kansas farmer, became obsessed with the creation of an animated mouse tentatively named Mortimer, which soon became Mickey.
During the Depression, the public rejoiced not only in Mickey's celluloid high jinks but in Mickey merchandise. With the advent of Mickey Mouse pocket watches, wrist-watches, and clocks, the Waterbury Clock Company's payroll burgeoned from 300 to 3,000 workers in a few months. Supposedly, by June 1, 1935, two and a half million Mickey watches were sold at $2.95. One story, possibly apocryphal, holds that 11,000 were sold in one day at a special promotion at Macy's. "I keep time for 1 1/2 million happy children," piped Mickey in a 1930s advertisement.
To introduce the watch (or Mickey Number One, as it is known to collectors), Ingersoll set up a mini factory at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair to produce Mickey Mouse watches, for which orders were taken and deliveries made on the spot. If you bought one then, and it is still in good condition, it might be worth a few hundred extra.
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