- Ingersoll-Waterbury made the original Mickey Mouse watch and continued to release iterations until the 1960s. Most pre-1970s watches are Ingersoll-Waterbury.
- In the 1970s and beyond, Mickey Mouse watches were made by various brands and designers, notably Seiko and Gérald Genta, who released deluxe, limited-edition watches.
- There are many factors involved in determining the value of a Mickey Mouse watch, including the brand, the age of the watch, and its condition and functionality.
Ingersoll-Waterbury Watches
Ingersoll-Watersbury made the first Mickey Mouse watch in 1933. This launched the Mickey Mouse watch trend, and the majority of Mickey watches made until the 1970s are Ingersoll-Waterbury watches. The 1933 watch had a round face and decorative bezel. Though the Mickey Mouse character wore white gloves until 1936, Mickey wears yellow gloves on the face of the original watch. The band is black and is decorated with silver Mickey Mouse cutouts. The 5 and 7 appear outside Mickey’s feet, rather than on or under them. The watch runs on a WWI surplus pin lever movement. The first watch also contained a subdial with 3 tiny Mickeys chasing one another around the dial. Ingersoll-Waterbury manufactured the very first Mickey Mouse wristwatch and sold it at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. They also created a matching pocket watch. The Ingersoll trademark appears on the watch dials. Ingersoll, now known as Timex, held the rights to make Mickey Mouse watches from 1933 up until 1971, so if your watch is pre-1971, odds are it’s an Ingersoll. In the 1960s and beyond, more and more brands took up the Mickey Mouse trend. Though the watch sold for $3.25 when it was first released in 1933, it's worth much more now. An original 1933 Ingersoll-Waterbury Mickey Mouse watch went up for auction in 2016 and was priced between $1500 and $2500. The 1934 watch looked much like the 1933 watch, although the 5 and 7 on the watch appeared either outside or inside Mickey’s feet.
The watches from 1935 to 1937 underwent a few small changes. For instance, the newer watches have a label reading “U.S.A.” on the dial, between Mickey’s rear and the number 8. The numbers 5 and 7 appear on top of Mickey’s feet, rather than outside or inside them as they do on previous watches. The watches manufactured between 1934 and 1937 were made in round cases.
Some 1937 watches had a rectangular case. While some watches made in this year still resembled the previous watches, some were markedly different. They were created in plain rectangular cases rather than the round cases, and the 3 tiny Mickeys were removed from the subdial and replaced with a simple second hand. The long sides of the rectangular case bowed out slightly, but the short sides of the case were straight. Previous Mickey watches were made for boys, but now there were watches for girls, too, with thinner, metal straps.
Between 1938 and 1942, the watch lost its subdial. Besides losing its subdial, the watch remained more or less the same. The case was still rectangular, but now each long side contained 5 decorative notches. Mickey watches from the 1930s and '40s may be worth between $150 and $1500, depending on their condition and functionality. In 1942, Ingersoll, the original Mickey Mouse watch manufacturer, was bought by U.S. Time, but the Ingersoll trademark still appeared on the watch face. After Ingersoll was bought by U.S. Time, some of the Mickey Mouse watches were gold-plated until the 1960s.
In 1948, a luminous dial was used. The luminous dial was made by applying radium to the dial so that it would glow. Luminous dials were a popular feature on many watches throughout the 20th century, and they remain popular today (although radium stopped being used in the 1970s due to its extreme radioactivity). If you’ve got a vintage watch with a luminous dial and are worried about being exposed to radioactivity, you can relax: the EPA has determined luminous dials made with radium aren’t a hazard unless you take the watch apart.
The 1950s watch features red numbers. The numbers on the faces of the previous watches were black. The watch was otherwise the same as it appeared in the 40s: rectangular case, luminous dial, yellow-gloved hands pointing to the time.
The 1960s watch has no Mickey. In Ingersoll’s (at this point, U.S. Time’s) final decade holding the license for the Mickey Mouse watch, they removed Mickey from the watch entirely. Instead, the words “Mickey Mouse” appeared in all caps across the face of the watch. In this decade, the case was changed from rectangular back to round. U.S. Time was renamed Timex in July 1969.
Other Notable Mickey Mouse Watches
If your watch plays music, it might be a Lorus Mickey Mouse watch. Ingersoll stopped releasing Mickey Mouse watches in 1971, and the Japanese manufacturer Seiko licensed the character to release their own line of Mickey Mouse watches in the ’80s and ’90s under their brands Lorus, Pulsar, and Seiko. Lorus musical Mickey watches run from between $300 and $2000, depending on their rarity and condition. Lorus released a number of limited-edition watches for men and women, but the musical watch is among the rarest and most valuable.
The 1970s Seiko watch features both Mickey and Minnie. This watch is a mechanical 7-jeweled wristwatch. It was created for Seiko’s Japanese market, and there were only 500 made, making it exceedingly rare and therefore very valuable at upwards of $475. Seiko also made a 14-karat gold Mickey Mouse watch in the 1990s in another limited run of 500.
1984 saw the debut of Gérald Genta’s luxury Mickey Mouse watches. The original delicate-looking quartz Genta Round Retro Fantasy Watch featured a Mother of Pearl face, a laughing Mickey Mouse on the dial, a jump-hour display, and retrograde minutes. At the time of its release, the white-gold version of the watch was the most expensive Mickey Mouse watch ever. When the celebrated watchmaker Genta debuted his “high class kitsch” Mickey Mouse watches at a Swiss trade fair in 1984, he was asked by the event organizers to remove them from his display. In protest, Genta took his watches and stormed out. Genta’s Round Retro Fantasy watches feature Mickey as well as other Disney universe characters. The cartoons are usually depicted playing sports like baseball or golf.
Determining Watch Value
A watch’s brand will affect its value. There are a lot of Mickey Mouse watches out there, manufactured by numerous brands. But if your watch is by Ingersoll-Waterbury, Timex, Genta, Seiko, Bradley, Invicta, Swatch, or Gucci, it’s likely to be more valuable than, say, a Target brand watch (no offense to Target). It’s unclear if Rolex ever actually made Mickey Mouse watches or if “Mickey Mouse Rolexes” are really just Rolexes with aftermarket Mickey dials placed in the watch. Genta's Mickey watches are the most valuable of all, with some worth upwards of $30,000 due to their quality as well as their limited edition status.
The older the watch, the higher its value. Depending on its functionality and condition, an original 1933 Ingersoll-Waterbury Mickey Mouse watch may cost between a couple hundred dollars and $1500. While people often use “antique” and “vintage” interchangeably, the word “antique” actually only applies to items a century or older. Thus, until 2033, original Ingersoll-Waterbury Mickey Mouse watches are just “vintage.”
A functioning watch in good condition is worth more. If your watch is rare and old, but scuffed up or not working? You’re not going to get the best price for it. Just like a car, a watch’s condition affects its value a lot. Similarly, if you’ve had parts replaced, this will likely decrease your watch’s value. If you’ve inherited the watch from someone who may have had it repaired or serviced at one point or another, see if you can get documentation of the repairs as this will help give you a fuller picture of the condition of the watch.
A watch specialist will help you determine your watch’s value. Don’t look to eBay for information on how much your watch should go for—go to the professionals. Watch specialists will know a ton about the history of Mickey Mouse watches as well as how to go about determining what your watch is worth. Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Auctionata, and Philip’s all have watch specialists in-house who can help you figure out the price of your Mickey Mouse watch.
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