Swiss Made Mickey Mouse Collectible Watches

About Mickey Mouse

Who could have predicted the legend that was being created when Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse film, came out in theaters back in 1928? Not only was it the first Mickey Mouse movie, but it was the very first time a cartoon with sound had been shown in movie theaters. Mickey Mouse's creator, Walt Disney, was already familiar with the cartoon industry since he had created Oswald the Rabbit, another animal character that was extremely popular at the time.

The story goes that on a long train trip, Walt Disney doodled until he came up with the initial design for the adorable mouse, who his wife dubbed "Mickey." Disney was so taken with this little character that he got together with animator Ub Iwerks to create a cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse. The film was a smash success, drawing both young and old to theaters to follow the exploits of the spunky little mouse.

Mickey Mouse Watches

It didn't take long for manufacturers to come up with products to cash in on Mickey's success. Before long the stores were filled with things like Mickey Mouse dolls, banks, and watches. The first watch was made by the Ingersoll-Waterbury company (which is today known as Timex) in 1933, five years after Mickey Mouse first charmed audiences in his big screen debut. Like many companies during the Depression Era, Ingersoll-Waterbury had been struggling along, barely able to make ends meet, but the Mickey Mouse wrist watch solved the firm's cash flow problems. More than 11,000 units sold the day the watch first came out.

The company followed up this success with a Mickey Mouse pocket watch. Seeing the success of Ingersoll's watch, other watch companies quickly began developing Mickey Mouse watches of their own. Over the years these timepieces have become popular amongst both watch collectors and collectors of Mickey Mouse themed items.

Bradley Mickey Mouse Watches

Bradley, a division of Elgin National Industries, produced Mickey Mouse collectible watches between the years 1972 and 1985. Although Bradley was based in the United States, they used Swiss movements for their watches and many of the Swiss Mickey Mouse watches for sale today are Bradley watches. Bradley made other Disney themed watches, including Cinderella, Donald Duck, Goofy and more. Most of the Bradley watches were the wind-up variety, however in the 1980s the company produced some quartz models that ran on battery power.

Styles of Mickey Mouse Watches

It is amazing how watch manufacturers have managed to take the Mickey Mouse character and show him in new and different ways to create unique Mickey Mouse collectible watches. A common style for Swiss made Mickey Mouse collectible watches shows a smiling Mickey in a jaunty pose with his arms serving as the hour and minute hands, but there are other types of Mickey watches that show only Mickey's happy face. Still others show Mickey hanging out with one of his friends. With so many different Mickey Mouse watches available, it'll be hard to make a choice when you're ready to buy!