The Ingersoll Watch Company is currently owned by
Zeon Watches, a British subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based company
Herald Group
A herald, or a herald of arms, is an officer of arms, ranking between pursuivant and king of arms. The title is commonly applied more broadly to all officers of arms.
Heralds were originally messengers sent by monarchs or noblemen to ...
. The brand originated in the United States of America in 1882 but is in Austria now.
Origins
Ingersoll Watch Company grew out of a mail order business (R H Ingersoll & Bro) started in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in 1882 by 21-year-old
Robert Hawley Ingersoll and his brother
Charles Henry Ingersoll. The company initially sold low-cost items such as rubber stamps.
![Ingersoll Watch workers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Ingersoll_Watch_workers.jpg)
The first Ingersoll watches, called "Universal" were introduced in 1892, supplied by the
Waterbury Clock Company
Timex Group USA, Inc. (formerly known as Timex Corporation) is an American global watch manufacturing company founded in 1854 as the Waterbury Clock Company in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1944, the company became insolvent but was reformed into ...
. They were in reality small spring-driven clocks, about three inches diameter and over one inch thick. These were put into watchcases with pendants that carried bows and crowns like contemporary watches. The crown was not functional, the watch was wound by a captive key that hinged out, and a central wheel was used to set the hands, both accessible when the back was opened just as in a clock. At first they were sold wholesale to dealers, but later in 1892 a mail order catalogue was produced and watches were sold directly to the public.
[Cutmore, M. "Watches 1850 - 1980". David & Charles, Devon, UK. 2002.]
The Waterbury watch company also initially sold the watches, but the Ingersolls soon negotiated a sole agency deal. In 1893 a smaller version of the Universal watch called the "Columbus" was made.
Watches
In 1896 Ingersoll introduced a watch called the ''Yankee'', setting its price at $1. This made it the cheapest watch available at the time, and the first watch to be priced at one dollar; the "
dollar watch" was born. It was cheaply mass-produced from stamped parts and without
jewels
A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, a ...
so that it would be affordable to everyone.
By 1899 the Waterbury Clock Company were producing 8,000 of these watches per day for Ingersoll, who started advertising that 10,000 dealers carried their dollar watch. By 1910, Waterbury was producing 3,500,000 dollar watches per year for Ingersoll.
Over 20 years nearly 40m dollar watches were sold, and Ingersoll coined the phrase "The watch that made the dollar famous!" Theodore Roosevelt mentioned that during his hunting trip in Africa he was described as "the man from the country where Ingersoll was produced."
In 1904 Ingersoll opened a store in London, England. In 1905 Robert sailed to England and introduced the ''Crown'' pocket watch for 5 shillings, which was the same value as $1 at the time. These were made by a British subsidiary, Ingersoll Ltd, initially assembled from imported parts, and later made entirely in their London factory. These watches were made until the late 1920s, after the American parent company had collapsed.
Ingersoll bought the Trenton Watch Company in 1908, and the bankrupt New England Watch Company in
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...
, for $76,000 on November 25, 1914.
By 1916, the company was producing 16,000 watches per day in 10 models. That year also saw the introduction of a so-called "night design," the ''Radiolite'' featuring a luminous
radium dial
Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rathe ...
.
In 1917 the company produced another popular watch with 7 jewels called the ''Reliance.''
In the 1930s, the company, now called Ingersoll-Waterbury manufactured the first
Mickey Mouse watches.
Over 5m of these watches were sold in the first 15 years of production.
Bankruptcy
The Ingersoll Watch Company went bankrupt in 1921 during the recession that followed
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
It was purchased by the Waterbury Clock Company in 1922 for $1,500,000. Waterbury Clock sold the London-based arm of the Ingersoll watch business, Ingersoll, Ltd., to its board of directors in 1930, making it a wholly British-owned enterprise.
In 1944 the Waterbury Clock Company was renamed United States Time Corporation (now
Timex Group USA
Timex Group USA, Inc. (formerly known as Timex Corporation) is an American global watch manufacturing company founded in 1854 as the Waterbury Clock Company in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1944, the company became insolvent but was reformed into ...
) and continued producing Ingersoll watches in the United States through the 1950s.
Anglo-Celtic Company Ltd
After the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, the British company, Ingersoll Ltd, joined with
Smiths Industries Ltd and Vickers Armstrong in setting up the Anglo-Celtic Company Ltd on the Ynyscedwyn estate. This was on the outskirts of the village of Ystradgynlais, near
Swansea,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. The first model featured the same movement as the earlier British Ingersolls, now designated calibre PY. These watches were branded Ingersoll Triumph and Smiths Empire. Ingersoll Ltd pulled out of the venture in 1969. Between 1946 and 1980, when the factory closed down, over 30,000,000 watches were made, and exported to 60 countries throughout the world.
They also made many character pocket watches, of many subjects from the 1930s - Betty Boop, Big Bad Wolf, Buck Rogers, Dizzy Dean, Donald Duck, Flash gordon, Lone Ranger, Mickey Mouse, Moon Mullins, Popeye, Rudy Nebb, Skeezix, Smitty, Three Little Pigs, and Tom Mix.
In the years after World War II, watch face themes included Captain Marvel, Captain Midnight, Dan Dare, Dick Tracy, Donald Duck, Hopalong Cassidy, Jeff Arnold, and Peter Pan.
Current ownership
The ''Ingersoll''
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
is currently owned by Zeon Watches, a British subsidiary of the Hong Kong company Herald Group.
Herald Group
/ref> Ingersoll watches are distributed in more than 50 countries.
See also
* Timexpo Museum
Further reading
*''Comic Character Timepieces'', Hy Brown with Nancy Thomas
References
External links
*{{Official website
Watch brands
Defunct watchmaking companies
Companies established in 1882