Vintage Western Character Watches

It's always time for character watches...Watches with Character.  

Vintage Annie Oakley, Dale Evans, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Jeff Arnold, Lone Ranger, Mickey Mouse, Red Ryder, Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, The Westener, Zorro Character Watches.

   With the popularity and success of the 1933 Mickey Mouse watch and clocks, other creators of characters began marketing their products. In 1934 Ingersoll created the first western character watch and pocket watch of Tom Mix. It had Mix on his bucking horse Tony with a steer for a second hand while the pocket watch came with a similar matching fob. Both hard to find today. 

Starting in 1939 New Haven produced this Lone Ranger lapel watch with fob. This lapel watch is similar to the 1938 Mickey Mouse lapel watch with a must have decal on the back but unlike Mickey, it has a plain simple front of the watch (see below). The decal depicts the Lone Ranger and Silver on a plain whitish background. Marked "The Lone Ranger" and "Hi-Ho Silver" but no copyright mark at the very bottom. NOTE: The Ranger is waving his hat in his right hand which matches the picture on the boxes they came in. This version is harder to find.

  Below is the more common version of the Lone Ranger Decal with fob and box.

This more common decal depicts the Lone Ranger on a rearing Trigger on a desert background with the caption reading "Hi-Yo Silver" and marked "The Lone Ranger". These came with a rope fob and button (as seen above) that reads the same as the watch, "Hi-Yo Silver" and "The Lone Ranger" OR it came with a leather holster with a gun fob. NOTE: With this version, the Ranger is waving his hat in his left hand, its "HI-YO" and there is a proper copyright at the bottom.

The plain front of the watch has no reference at all to the Lone Ranger, just marked New Haven.

In 1939, New Haven produced this Lone Ranger wrist watch which has the Ranger dressed in a yellow shirt and blue pants along with a red hat and scarf riding on Silver with the caption reading "Hi-Yo Silver" and marked "The Lone Ranger". This came with a western style leather band as all the western watches did.

In 1948, New Haven again produced this Lone Ranger wrist watch, the same as earlier except for not as large, the hands and smaller crown. The Ranger dressed in a yellow shirt and blue pants along with a red hat and scarf riding on Silver with the caption reading "Hi-Yo Silver" and marked "The Lone Ranger". This came with a western style leather band as all the western watches did. 

These came in both gold and silver tone with gold being harder to find today.

and came in these beautiful blue boxes. I noticed on this box, it has the trademark under the horse and "wrist watch" is on the second line whereas other boxes have no trademark under the horse and "wrist watch" is condensed on the first line.

  In 1948, The Wilane Trading Company created the Gene Autry with rearing horse Champion wristwatch with a white dial with luminous numbers, this was a 1 jewel Swiss movement. Autry is waving as Champion rears up. The back is marked "Always Your Pal Gene Autry".  

This first Autry watch is harder to find today especially with the box.

These came in these simple brown boxes with matching picture of Gene on rearing Champion of the Flying A Ranch. Hard to find today.

The Wilane Trading Company also created this more concise Gene Autry watch with his smiling face, his signature, signed "always your pal" on the face and etched into the back. Autry has on a western style shirt, red scarf and his hat. This Swiss made watch came with luminous hands and is hard to find today. 

 In 1949, United Import Company created this Red Ryder watch depicting Red dressed in all red with a yellow cowboy hat and white scarf waving astride his mighty steed Thunder with his side kick Little Beaver riding away on his horse Papoose on a white background with black numbers, black minute marks and black hands to tell the time. Marked Swiss made 1949 Stephen Slesinger NY, internally marked no jewels unadjusted for this beautiful rare find.

  In 1950, US Time (formerly Ingersoll) produced the Hopalong Cassidy lapel watch and wristwatch. The lapel watch was similar to the 1938 Mickey Mouse Lapel watch and/or the Lone Ranger lapel watch pictured above but without the decal on the back. Here you have a nice example of the very hard to find lapel watch with smiling Hopalong and with original button fob for your lapel. These also came with red hands.

Here is an example of the very common wristwatch which is a smaller child's type watch with western style band and came in two different cases, one slightly larger than the other. The back is signed "Good Luck from Hoppy".

The only other difference is a minor change to his collar. Again, the back is signed "Good Luck from Hoppy".  Unlike the lapel watch, the wrist watch was produced for 8 years and is still very common today.

The Hopalong watch had two different types of presentation boxes. One had a saddle that the watch sat on (see below) which is harder to find today and the other a regular box with a picture of Hopalong and Topper on the insert and just Hoalong on the top of the box as shown below.

Here is a nice example of the "saddle" box

Ingraham produced the Dale Evans watch in 1951 with her dressed in western wear, scarf and hat posing with Buttermilk and a horseshoe outlining them both with tan background. It came with western style leather and or metal expansion band. Here is the larger version of the Dale watch which also came in a smaller round case (see below).

Ingraham also produced this Roy Rogers & Trigger wristwatch with Roy dressed in western wear with a scarf and hat posing with Trigger that came with a green background and again with a western style leather band or metal expansion band. Note the bezel is a more intricate than Dales. 

Also in 1951, Ingraham produced a 

rounder case for both Dale and Roy, the same face and movement but in a case with a round style.

 All of these came in simple but nice presentation boxes.

 

Dale and Roy also had flicker watches that are often hard to find today especially in working order. "Flicker" is three pics together aligned slightly so it looks like the subject is moving. Today they call them lenticular.

 Here is the Dale and buttermilk.

Also in 1951, New Haven produced their version of the Gene Autry watch similar to the Wilane Trading Company’s 1948 model, but this one was animated and known as "The moving gun" watch with a smiling picture of Autry, his signature, signed "always your pal" on the face and etched into the back of the watch and a moving six shooter that ticks off the seconds. This version is still highly prized today and was reproduced & sold in the 90's at the western museum.

This came with a western style leather band and a nice presentation box.  

120 shots a minute!

Here is a beautiful 1951 Annie Oakley also with moving gun by New Haven Clock and Watch Co. Annie is depicted in profile with her long shiny black hair wearing a cowboy hat and a blue and red top a white collar on a white background with luminous numbers and silver hands to tell the time along with the moving gun to tick off the seconds. Dial marked copyright by Muros Watch Factory 1950 Swiss made, this one with beautiful black original western band.

  Here is a 1950s Jeff Arnold (from Eagle Comics) by Ingersoll. Eagle was a British children's comic best known for "Dan Dare, Pilot Of The Future" and "Riders Of The Range" which featured Western hero Jeff Arnold. Here cowboy Jeff is dressed in a green hat, blue plaid shirt with red scarf, brown pants and is shooting both his guns while he rides his horse. Cowboy Jeff's left hand moves up and down to tick off the seconds all on a western background with white numbers, black minute marks and white hands to tell the time. Marked Ingersoll in large letters (meaning a first run), Jeff Arnold below that in red, made in GT. Britain.

In 1954, US Time (formerly Ingersoll) produced the Davy Crockett watch. This is a plastic bezel watch with the likeness of Fess Parker (who played Crockett on TV) dressed in his leather top and his coon skin hat holding his shot gun. These came with a western style leather band that came in a presentation box also with Parker's likeness and plastic powder horn. Box & horn are hard to find today.  

Davy Crockett also came in a metal case

In 1954, Ingraham, produced this Dale Evans watch with her alone standing in a red western style fringed top and leather skirt with fringe, boots, gloves and a red hat. Signed with her name and marked Made in the USA, harder to find today.

Also, in 1954 Ingraham produced a different version of Roy Rogers with Roy wearing a red top and white hat and jeans on a rearing Trigger and signed Roy Rogers marked Made in the USA.

 This all came in nice simple presentation boxes. 

Ingraham also produced this "Westerner" pocket watch for the Canadian market. A bucking horse-riding cowboy with his hat flying off and hand in the air on a white background with red numbers and black minute marks and black hands to tell the time along with a simple sub dial for the seconds. Simply marked "The Westener", a rare find today. See below for the matching wristwatch.

 Ingraham also produced this "Westerner" wristwatch for the Canadian market. A bucking horse-riding cowboy with his hat flying off and hand in the air on a white background with red numbers and black minute marks and black hands to tell the time. Simply marked "The Westener", a rare find today.

In 1956, Muros produced this Davy Crockett with moving gun watch with Davey in his fringed leather shirt and wearing his coon skin hat on a white dial with green luminescent numbers, black minute marks and green luminescent hands to tell the time. Dial marked Copyright by Muros Watch Factory Swiss made. This one is less common than the Bradley below especially when it properly has the moving gun included, sometimes its missing. What a great rare watch.

In 1956, Bradley produced the Davy Crockett watch with Davey in his leather shirt and pants holding his shot gun and wearing his coon skin hat. These came with western style bands and has unique "arrow" hands, a big deal back then.

In 1956, US Time (formerly Ingersoll) produced their version of the Lone Ranger watch, this one a smaller child type watch similar to the Hopealong Cassidy watch that was being produced and sadly most likely the same case, movement and hands even. Shown here with the masked man dressed in jeans, a red shirt and white hat riding Silver.

This 1950's Davey Crockett was produced by liberty, Swiss made with a jeweled movement. It came with just his name and a picture of a gun on the face. The leather band has his name embossed on one end and a feather attached to the other and came in a simple brown box. Hard to find today.

In 1957, US Time (formerly Ingersoll) created the Zorro watch, again very similar to the Hopealong Cassidy and Lone Ranger watches they were producing at the same time. This uninspired character watch was very plain with only the word "Zorro" on the face of the watch and WDP for Walt Disney Productions. In this case, the box being more unique and desirable then the watch as it came with a "sombrero" that the watch sat on. Box is hard to find today.

In 1958, Bradley produced the Roy Rogers pocket watch and stopwatch. The face depicts both Roy on a rearing Trigger and a separate smiling face of Roy signed Roy Rogers and Trigger with regular white numbers on a brown inner circle and a second outer yellow display for the stop watch of 60-minute numbers marked off to fifth of a second for the stopwatch feature. Note on the upper left outside of the case, there is a button to use the stop watch feature. Also note: This is the same watch Bradley produced for Superman at the same time that you can see on my Super Hero's blog. Superman is harder to find today.

 In the 1960's, Bradley once again produced the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans watches with Trigger and Buttermilk respectively using their standard Swiss movement at the time. Both came with either metal expansion or leather bands.

 

Here we have an unlicensed Daniel Boone watch from the 1970s with his name and a powder horn pictured in the middle. Marked Swiss made at the bottom, it has 12 regular black numbers plus black marks for each minute, black open face hands and a red second hand.  

Here we have a non-distinct Indian watch from the 70's with moving tomahawk that ticks away the seconds made by Webster and sold as a "magic watch" because of the moving action. Webster was creating all sorts of moving action watches at the time.

Also in the 1970's, Bradley produced this Mickey Mouse Western style. Smiling Mickey is wearing his big yellow cowboy hat and boots, a white shirt with a brown vest and chaps, red scarf, belt and gloves while twirling a lasso on a white background with black numbers, black minute marks minutes marked off by five with black hands including a second hand to tell the time. Marked Walt Disney Productions. What a great watch, uncommon today.

In 1980, Bradley produced this manual wind Lone Ranger watch with a Hong Kong movement marked Bradley Time Division on the back. Front is marked The Lone Ranger, Bradley at the top and has the Lone Ranger wearing his regular blue outfit riding Trigger. It has bullets for the minutes except for the 3, 6, 9 & 12 and the bottom says 1980 The Lone Ranger Television, Inc. It came with a nice western style band.

In 1982, Ralston Cereal promoted this Tom Mix watch by Jovissa Watch LTD. Tom Mix is looking sharp in his big white cowboy hat, white scarf and blue shirt on a red & white checkered circle background with the words "Its Ralston Time" all on a larger white background.  It has red numbers for the 3, 6, 9, & 12 with black minute marks, a red second hand and his gloved hands with six shooters to tell the time. Marked Swiss made internally and "the Original Registered Model the Original" on the back. 

I believe this is from 1988, Gene Autry "moving gun" watch specifically made for the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. It has smiling Gene wearing a white hat, red shirt and red scarf holding his gun which ticks back and forth to tick off the seconds (just like Gene's 1951 watch by New Haven) all on a white background with black numbers, gold luminous hands including a gold second hand to tell the time. Marked Gene Autry watch Always your Pal on the dial and Autry Museum of Western Heritage, limited Edition 0454 Hong Kong Movement on the back.

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/
 


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It's always time for character watches...Watches with Character.