It's always time for character
watches...Watches with Character.
Vintage Batman,
Bionic Woman, Captain Marvel, Dick Tracy, Hardy Boys, Hong Kong Phooey, Incredible Hulk,
Inspector Gadget, James Bond, Johnny Horizon, Man from Uncle, Marvel Junior,
Mary Marvel, Master of Universe, Mighty Mouse, Robin, Robin Hood, Shadow, Six Million Dollar Man, Smokey Bear, Spiderman,
Superman, Underdog, Wonder Woman character watches.
In 1938, at about
the same time as the launch of the Mickey Mouse watch, the first Dick Tracy watch was produced by New
Haven with a large 1930s tank style case & sold for $2.25. Tracy
is shown neatly dressed in a suit, hat and tie standing with a gun in one hand
and the other in his pocket on a white background with black numbers, black
minute marks and red hands to tell the time. The face is marked Dick Tracy, signed
by his creator Chester Gould and marked Made in the USA.
Superman,
one of the oldest and most popular super heroes started out with his first watch
representation right after Mickey Mouse.
In 1939, New Haven
produced this large size pre-war tank style watch with intricate design on the
case for $2.95. The man of steel is standing with his hands on his hips and marked Superman
across the bottom and marked Made in the USA at the very bottom on a white
background with black hands, black minute marks and black and red watch hands
to tell the time. Box and watch are hard to find and treasured today. This
was also reproduced in 1993.In 1948, Fawcett Publications produced
the Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and Marvel Junior watches. Each had
luminescent hands & a Swiss movement.
Here is the Captain standing
with his cape flowing behind him, holding
a plane in one hand on a white background with gold numbers and a yellow outer
circle for the minute marks and luminous hands to tell the time. Marked shocked
protected.
Mary Marvel shown as if she is taking
flight and with her cape flowing behind her on same white
background with gold numbers and an outer circle for the minutes and luminous
hands to tell the time.
Ultra-rare Captain Marvel Junior is
also shown taking flight wearing a blue suit, red cape on a white background grey
numbers with a gold outer circle for the minutes and black luminous hands (these
lost their luminous-ness) to tell the time.
The Marvel set had a regular larger size and a
slightly smaller DELUXE size which sold for a dollar more with a one jewel
movement & shock protected and is rarer today. They all came in regular boxes or the harder to
find today bright yellow plastic cases as shown below.
10 years after his first watch, New
Haven produced the 1948 Dick Tracy square face style with Tracy again standing
with a gun in one hand, always neatly
dressed in a blue suit, hat and tie on a white background with black numbers,
black minute marks and black hands to tell the time. Marked Dick Tracy at the
bottom.
These came in these nice colorful presentation boxes with matching insert.
Late 1940's or 1950's Viking produced this Robin Hood. A well-made watch marked
Robin Hood and Swiss made with 12 green numbers to match his tights and each
minute is marked off with every five of those marked with numbers. Robin Hood
is decked out in his full leather outfit with tights and boots including a
feather in his hood. He has his quiver on his back, a knife on his belt and
carries his bow in one hand and sword in the other. It has green hands and
a red second hand to tell the time.
In 1951, New Haven produced the Dick
Tracy with moving gun watch that ticked off the seconds just like the watch they
produced for Gene Autry (see my Western blog) at the same time with same movement, same luminescent hands, and same
round 50's style case. Again,
well dressed in a blue suit and tie, Tracy is shown standing with his gun and
wearing his yellow hat on a white background (some yellow), green luminous
numbers and black minute marks. Top is marked (c) CHIC. TRIB. USF 1951 SWISS
COPYR 1951, bottom is marked Hew Haven Clock and Watch Co. NOTE: This is the smaller gun and below boxed pictures shows the larger gun version.
These came in these smaller boxes (compared to 1948 version)
In 1951, New Haven produced Superman with simple, less intricate case
and again with the man of steals hands on his hips on a white background with
black numbers, black minute marks and black hands to tell the time. Marked
Superman at the bottom with original yellow vinyl band.
In 1956, Ingersoll produced the Robin Hood watch in a tank style case
with Robin shooting his bow standing sideways on a floor with yellow
background. The white numbers are on a black background and black minute marks
on a yellow background.
Late 1950s, New Haven produced this tank style FULL body Superman watch again with hands on his hips
and special lightning bolt hands, a big deal back then and highly prized today
this time with Superman written at the top on a light blue background with red
even numbers and red dots for the odd numbers and black minute marks. Marked
COPR N.C.P at the bottom for (National Comics Publication, Inc.).
and these came with a special bluish leather band with the Superman emblem marked on both sides in red and beautiful red accent stitching along with a detailed buckle. What a prize!
In 1958, Bradley
produced the Superman pocket watch and stopwatch. The face depicts a confident
Superman flying over the city with regular yellow numbers on a blue inner circle
and a second outer yellow display for the stopwatch of 60-minute numbers marked
off to the fifth of a second for the stop watch feature.
Note on the
upper left outside of the case, there is a button slide to use the stopwatch feature.
Also note: This is the same watch Bradley produced for Roy Rogers at the same time that you can see on my Western blog. Superman is harder to find today.
Early 1960s, DC comics had this different version of a
Superman watch produced where he appears to be flying over the city on a sky-blue
background with yellow numbers on a black background and black hands to tell
the time.
In 1965, UK based
Gilbert produced this James Bond 007 watch with a Swiss movement in a plastic
case. This large case, matching Bond's silver car dash style has two pull out magnifying glasses on the left top and
bottom which they called "secret sighting lenses" and a unique
"world time" dial. The minute hand moves regularly, and a round
circle rotates to show the hour. The bezel, along the edges of the dial has different
world city names to know what time it is around the world. A limited production and unique watch make this highly prized
today with the box being rare.
Then in 1966, UK based
Gilbert produced the Batman watch known as the "Bat Wing" watch. A
Swiss movement in a large plastic case resembling Batman's cape with greenish
florescent lines to match the numbers on the dial and bat wing hands to tell the time. Limited production and again a unique design makes this highly prized by collectors and hard to find especially
with the box.
Also in 1966, Bradley for MGM produced the Man from
Uncle Secret Agent watch for the television series. This Swiss movement watch
shows a drawing of the secret agent as portrayed by Robert Vauhn holding his "Open
Channel D" satellite communicator on a light blue background with black
numbers and gold hands to tell the time.
Also in 1966, Bradley produced a Superman watch, essentially the same watch as above with a different dial. Superman is flying at an angle with his name in bright red above him on a yellow background with black
numbers, black minute marks along with black minute numbers every five minutes, black hands including a second hand to tell the time. Marked Swiss made.
In the 1960's, Hawhorne produced this Smokey Bear watch Swiss made with shovel hands, very nice watch reminding you to "prevent forest fires". I believe this superhero fire preventing Smokey watch was the first Smokey watch produced.
Bradley also produced a nicely made Smokey
Bear in their standard "coffin" style box
also with “shovel hands”.
In the 1970’s Rega
produced this Johnny Horizon watch for the U.S. land management bureau, Johnny Horizon is the mascot to
fight littering. Here is smiling Johnny’s head wearing his black hat on a bright yellow background
with black numbers and white hands along with moving eyes to tick away the
seconds. Marked Piet.
1976 Lafayette produced this Johnny Horizon jump hour watch for the U.S. land management bureau to fight littering and clean up our national parks. Here is smiling Johnny's head wearing his hat in blue with "digital" hours and minute numbers to the left of him all on a light gold background. Marked Johnny Horizon '76 in red and Lafayette Watch Co. Swiss made 1976 U.S. Dept. of the interior. This amazing jump hour watch is hard to find today.
In 1972,
Universal City Studios produced the Hardy Boys watch based on their mystery television series. Swiss
made, this watch portrayed Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy as the
Hardy Boys from the television series at the time and is hard to find
today. Did Nancy Drew get a watch? Sadly, I've never seen one!
In 1973, Lafayette Watch Company produced the Underdog watch for the cartoon series. Smiling
Underdog is shown in his blue flowing cape and red tights with red boots on a white background with black
numbers and his wonderful arms to tell the time. Marked 1973 Leonardo TTV Swiss co26002 for this great watch.
In 1974-78, Timex for DC
Comics Inc. produced Batman, Robin, Superman and Wonder Woman watches with Swiss
movements and leather bands with matching yellow stitching. These nicely made
watches all came in plastic cases as shown with superman below.
Here is the cape crusader pictured running with his cape flowing on a
yellow background and bold black numbers a 3, 6, 9, & 12 and white hands to tell the time.
Robin also running with cape flowing on a yellow background
and bold black numbers a 3, 6, 9, & 12 and white hands to tell the time.
Here is Superman with his family emblem in the background
in the box with blue numbers and white hands to tell the time.
and here is Wonder Woman running with WW for the background on white with white numbers for 3, 6, 9, & 12 on a blue background and black hands to tell the time.
In the '70s, The Six Million
Dollar Man and Bionic Woman both got watches with Swiss movements for their television series at the time.
Here we have the Bionic Woman as portrayed by Lindsey Wagner on a bright red background with black numbers, black hands and a red second hand to tell the time.
Here is the Six Million Dollar Man as portrayed by Lee Majors
in his flight suit on a yellow background with white numbers on a blue background
except for the 3, 6, 9, & 12 which are red and black hands including a red
second hand to tell the time.
In 1976, they produced this different version of the
Six Million Dollar man this time
wearing a red track suit jumping in a field with hills and trees and a blue sky
behind him with black numbers and black hands to tell the time.
In 1977, Dabs (for DC
Comics Inc.) produced an entire set of superhero watches with Swiss movements in nice
colorful presentation boxes & matching decorative sleeves.
Each
watch came in small and large sized faces (except the Incredible Hulk was only small face and the Joker was only large face (according to the print ad) plus I have seen a rare digital quartz Hulk, but no quartz watches of the others) and came with nice leather bands with accented
stitching.
Large face, Batman swinging on a rope on a
red background with black numbers on a white background and white hands to tell
the time.
Small face, The Incredible Hulk,
running on a bright yellow background with black numbers, yellow hands and a
red second hand to tell the time.
Large face, Amazing Spiderman,
poised to jump on a yellow background with black numbers on a white background
and white hands to tell the time.
Large
face, Superman flying on a white background with black numbers on a yellow
background and yellow hands to tell the time.
Large face, Wonder Woman running
with twirling golden lasso on a light blue background with black numbers on a
white background with yellow hands to tell the time.
In 1977, Timex produced this Hong Kong
Phooey watch for Hanna-Barbera (see blog) based on their cartoon. This smaller size child's watch is hard to resist
with Karate chopping Penrod "Penry" Pooch's hands to tell the time dressed in a red with white trim gi, masked Penrod is on
a blue background with black numbers and a black second hand to tell the time.
One Jewel, Swiss made and marked Hanna Barbera Prod Inc. at the bottom, a rare find
today.
In
1977 and for quite a few years, Terrytoons had Bradley produce the Mighty Mouse watch with a Swiss movement
showing the most common view of the flying mouse, very common today and they may have slight variations.
Here is a great unique Superman from the 1970's with a full figure Superman with hands on hips looking like the super hero with "Superman" written above him along with a very small trademark underneath it. Superman is in his usual blue tights with red cape and red boots on a silver background with black numbers, black minute marks, five minute numbers, black hands and an orange second hand to tell the time. Marked Copyright National Periodical Publications Inc. 1966 Swiss movt. Hong Kong dial. What a great find.
Here we have a 1978 Underdog this time by Q&Q for the Japanese market. Smiling
Underdog is shown in his blue flowing cape and red tights with red boots on a white background with black
numbers, black minute marks, black hands and an orange second hand to tell the time. Marked Japan 6-120857h Leonardo TTV 78 for this super hard to find gem.
In
1983, Bradley produced the Inspector Gadget
watch for DIC Audiovisual Inc. for the cartoon they were producing at
the time.
Here is the inspector with Brain,
mint in the box wearing his grey trench coat blue pants and grey shoes on a
white background with black numbers, black minute marks, black hands including
a black second hand to tell the time. I've only seen one other wind up!
They also made the LED quartz version which is common
today.
In 1984, Bradley (for Mattel) produced the He Man Master of the Universe watch for their cartoon, one of the most popular animated children's shows of the 1980s. He
Man is standing strong in the middle with a red background with black numbers,
black minute marks on a white background and blue hands including a blue second
hand to tell the time. MINT original band, this small child's watch hard to
find today.
In 1994, The Shadow was produced by Hope for the movie, here in a tin box with warranty, all
original. This is a quartz watch.
For more Information
on Watches see:
The National Watch and Clock Museum:
https://nawcc.org/index.php/museum
The West Coast Clock & watch museum https://www.agsem.com/West-Coast-Clock-and-Watch-Museum.php which is located at the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum http://www.agsem.com/
Any thoughts can be
emailed to characterwatchtime@gmail.com
How much is your character watch worth???
For Legal info: https://characterwatchtime.blogspot.com/2019/03/legal-info.html
It's always time for character
watches...Watches with Character.