It's always time for character
watches...Watches with Character.
Vintage Crime Fighters and Secret Agent Character Watches
Vintage Bionic Woman, Dick Tracy, Hardy Boys, Hong Kong Phooey, Inspector Gadget, James Bond, Johnny Horizon, Man from Uncle, Robin Hood, Shadow, Six Million Dollar Man, Smokey Bear character watches.
sorted by age:
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bradley also produced a nicely made Smokey
Bear in their standard "coffin" style box
also with “shovel hands”.
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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.
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, 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 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 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
