It's always time for character
watches...Watches with Character.
Vintage Advertising Food Related (D - J) Character Watches
Vintage
Dum
Dum
Lollipops Drum man, Frankenberry, Count Chocula and Boo
Berry, Goofy Grape, Green Giant, Hamm's Beer Bear, Heinz, Icee bear, Jack in the Box character watches.
For part one of Vintage Advertising
Food Related (A - B) Character Watches, click
here.
For part two of Vintage Advertising
Food Related (C) Character Watches, click
here
For part four of Vintage Advertising Food Related (K - Q) Character Watches, click here.
For part five of Vintage Advertising Food Related (R - Z) Character Watches, click here.
Advertising Character watches mostly took off in the 70's & 80's as shown
below in alpha order. In the 1970's, Lafayette Watch Co. produced the Dum
Dum
Lollipops Drum man, Swiss made 17 Jewels. Here you have the smiling
drum man with his large hat and two lollipops as drum sticks on a white background with color dum
dum lollipop dots for the number indicators. A nicely
made watch and rare find today.
In the
1970's, Lafayette Watch Co. produced several of these prototype watches for General
Mills Monster Cereal with characters - Frankenberry, Count Chocula and Boo
Berry whose heads revolve around dial to tick off the seconds while the background image of haunted mansion
darkens to black then re-appears.
They were never mass produced, only about 10 were made.
In 1965 This Goofy Grape watch was advertised by Pillsbury as "10,000 winners" on the prize entry form, but with the very specific instructions needed to be completed, they didn't have as many winners making this watch rare today. You had to buy or draw each of the six flavor character faces and paste them on the entry form. Answer five of the riddles. Draw how "Left Lemon looks when he hist a home run" and finally make up a riddle of your own and of course mail it all in. Advertised as accurate time pieces with gold tone bezel and matching expansion band, sweep second hand, antimagnetic, Swiss movement and unbreakable crystal "and when you look at the time... Goofy Grape looks back at you". This Lord Nelson watch simply has a sticker of Goofy Grape on it. A beautiful white dial with silver even numbers, large silver marks for the odd numbers, silver minute marks and gold hands including a gold sweep second hand to tell the time. Today many of the original stickers haven't held up so well so its nice to have a great example like this one despite the crack in the crystal.
In 1974, Pillsbury produced this scarce Funny Face Goofy
Grape watch, Swiss made where Goofy Grape rotates as the second hand against a Sugar Sweetened Funny Face Goofy Grape package all on a white background with black 3,6,9 & 12 numbers,black marks for the other numbers and black and white hands to tell the time. I believe these were a fan club mail away item and that makes this a super great watch, hard to find today.
Here is a amazing Green Giant watch by Bradley Time where the jolly giant is standing tall with his hands on his hips almost ready to say "ho ho ho" dressed in his usual leafy outfit and shoes and with little sprout (who represents the consumer) at his side all on a white background with green numbers except for 3,6, & 9 which are black and black minute marks with the black numbers displayed in fives around the dial and green hands including a green second hand to tell the time. Marked Swiss made and Bradley to the side of this amazing hard to find watch.
These came in the usual Bradley Time Division coffin style boxes with display nicely with a clear plastic top and a picture of the Jolly Green Giant on the left including little sprout and watch manufacturer details on the right with the warranty slipped in underneath the yellow insert.
In 1978, The Green Giant Company ran an ad for birthday
card creations from children under the age of 12 to celebrate the Company’s 75th
anniversary and awarded this Green Giant pocket watch to 75 first place winners
(along with other items including an entire party for 20) and 750 second place winners so there are only 825 of
these amazing pocket watches which show Green Giant with a big smile centered
on a white dial with black numbers, black minute marks, black hands and a sub dial
for the seconds. This amazing watch came with a green leather fig leaf as the fob.
Here is a 1970's Hamm's Beer
Bear by Helbros, a 17 jewel Swiss movement mint! The Hamm's bear was noted as one of the best ad
campaigns of the last century. Here you have the Hamm's beer bear
nicely dressed in his red jacket and with his arms to tell the time and a
day number display on a white background with silver 3,6,9 & 12 numbers and marks for the others, a very well made watch, a rare find today.
In 1984, Timex produced this Heinz Ketchup watch with rotating ketchup bottle as the second hand. This is the second Heinz watch that I know of with the earlier one also having a rotating ketchup bottle. This one with a white background, black numbers, black minute marks and black hands to tell the time.
Again in the 1970's, Bradley produced this Icee
Bear watch with their standard Swiss movement of the time. Here is Icee
the polar bear in his usual red sweater with a large initial on it and
his arms to tell the time on a white background with black numbers and marks for the minutes. Hard to find today, what a treasure.
Also in the
1970's, Basis watch produced this Icee Bear watch, one jewel marked Swiss made. Icee is drinking a cherry Icee and carrying a second one in
the other hand, still in his iconic red sweater on a white background with blue numbers, gold hands and a gold second hand to tell the time. You had to collect points from
the drinking cup and mail them in to get this watch which makes it a rare find
today.
Here is a cool Jack in the Box by Lucerne with a large smiling Jack face at the 12 position facing to the right wearing his clown hat and ruffle collar along with the 3 and 9 positions having a smaller pic of Jack with the 9 position picture facing to the left and a large hamburger down at the bottom 6 position all on an orangish background with black hands to tell the time and original huge 1970s style mod band.
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
It's always time for character
watches...Watches with Character.
