Character Wristwatch, 1951
E. Ingraham Company
Bristol, CT
When Walt Disney asked the Ingersoll-Waterbury Watch Company to produce a line of watches in 1933, featuring his famous cartoon character Mickey Mouse, a new kind of timepiece was born – the comic character timepiece. Throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s, watches and clocks that featured cartoon characters (and movie heroes) were in high demand. Other watch companies, such as Ingraham and Waterbury, were encouraged by Ingersoll-Waterbury’s success and began producing their own lines of timepieces. Soon Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Donald Duck, the Lone Ranger and Buck Rogers could be found on watches and clocks.
The success of these novelty timepieces continued unabated until World War II. Production of "non-essential" items ceased as American factories, including watch and clock factories, were reorganized for the war effort. It would take several decades for character timepieces to regain their pre-war popularity.
One of the most popular characters during this post-war era was the singing cowboy, Roy Rogers. This wrist watch, made by the E. Ingraham Company for Bradley Time Corporation, featured Roy with his trusty horse, Trigger. Many watches were sold in attractive and colorful "pop-up" display boxes as seen here (No. WW 160). This watch, with a pin lever escapement, is a Model L/54.
Donated by Warner D. Bundens, Jr., NAWCC #1177