Getting Into Character — Why Cartoon Watches Are Serious Business

In recent years the dials of watches have started getting crowded, with familiar faces and figures popping up where hands and registers normally are. Audemars Piguet has put Black Panther and Spider-Man inside the classic Royal Oak case, and Snoopy has teamed up with Omega on several missions. Watches with this sort of pop culture cartoon character on them are typically referred to as character watches, and while some people love the charm and whimsy they involve, there's a not-insubstantial subset of the watch world that thinks your favorite superhero has no place on a watch. For these people, mechanical watchmaking is, as we all know, a serious business, and character watches trivialize these great works of art. Except, that's ridiculous. Not only do character watches have a long history, but Disney on a dial is no different to Monet or Hokusai.

At first glance, watches and cartoons don't have too much in common. In fact, you could argue that they're worlds apart. Mechanical watchmaking is the universe captured in a finely wrought case. A good watch is the result of a process that's part engineering, part art, and a little bit magic. Skilled craftspeople work on the smallest of canvases, creating lasting objects of beauty. Cartoons, in contrast, are seen as ephemeral drawings, cheap, essentially disposable art meant for momentary amusement. Except this isn't true. Cartoons and comics are perhaps one of the most significant examples of popular art, part of a centuries-long tradition that has been hugely influential. Cartoons are political discourse, social commentary and, of course, entertainment. The wheel of celebrity turns quickly, and few today remember the megastars that were Rudolph Valentino or Joan Fontaine. The same is not true for illustrated characters. Mickey Mouse, Snoopy and Batman have been staples for generations — with a legacy and power that is hard to match. On top of that, they can make you smile.

While the earliest known character watches are pocket watches from the late nineteenth century featuring engraved cartoon characters on the case, the genre was really defined by two names. Mickey Mouse and Ingersoll. In 1933, Mickey Mouse first appeared on the dial of an Ingersoll watch, with a full-bodied Mickey dominating the dial, gloved hands serving as hour and minute hands. Not only was this cheery character an instant hit, but it also defined the genre of the character watch — a prominent portrait with the time-telling hands incorporated into the design. Of course, not all character watches follow this formula, but it's the most iconic expression of the genre.

This style of character watch remained popular over the decades. Of course, the subject matter made them popular with younger wearers, but they were also worn by the young at heart. There's a particularly great portrait of Buzz Aldrin, looking very serious in his colonel's uniform, except for the Mickey Mouse watch peeking out from under his cuff.

The advent of affordable quartz watches ensured that character watches remained popular. At this time, they occupied a place in culture roughly analogous to the cartoon characters themselves. Cheap and sometimes cheeky (there seems to have been a thriving sub-genre of character watches specializing in political figures made by the All-American Time Company; if you wanted a timepiece to celebrate Nixon's impeachment, they had you covered), this era of character watches were intended primarily as consumable objects of fan service, not signifiers of luxury or status.

Character watches suddenly shot upmarket when none other than everyone's favorite watch designer, Gérald Genta, got involved. While he's most famous for his work on the Royal Oak and the Nautilus, Genta has had his own brand of watches since 1969, designing complicated and distinctive designs of his own. In 1984, Genta released watches with licensed Disney characters on the dial—of course, Mickey, but also Minnie, Daffy Duck, and others. Some of his designs featured the now well-established two-hand layout, but Genta's popular retrograde opened up numerous design options. So it was that we saw Daffy golfing or playing baseball, or a laid-back Mickey in a sailor's outfit leaning on a ship's wheel while pointing at the minute track. There's a definite 90s charm to these watches, and also some hope for the future of Disney and Genta. Louis Vuitton has revived the name and, as their Only Watch 2023 entry, created a special watch celebrating 100 years of Disney with a cake-wielding Mickey on a retrograde minute repeater.

Gérald Genta is widely regarded as a pioneer. Typically, he's regarded as a pioneer of the luxury sports watch, not the luxury character watch. But in the almost 40 years since Genta debuted his Disney dials, the world of high-end character watches has gone from strength to strength. Even Chanel is making watches with cartoon versions of their chic namesake on the dial.

One interesting (and sadly now defunct) brand that picked up the torch of character watches was Romaine Jerome. The brand, under the leadership of Manuel Emch, released a series of video game watches, making watches in partnership with Tetris, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Mario. Rather than offer any real sense of animation, these simple two-handed watches featured blocky, pixel-inspired dials showing a vignette from the games that inspired them. They were expensive and niche — I remember them raising plenty of eyebrows in the serious halls of Baselworld. But hindsight has shown that Romaine Jerome was smartly tapping into a rich vein of nostalgia for the early days of video game characters, who have now all grown up and purchased luxury watches to remind them of their childhood. It's a theory proven recently with the runaway success of TAG Heuer's Mario-themed watches.

Another man with his horological finger on the pop culture zeitgeist is George Bamford, of Bamford Watch Department. Bamford has been in the business of customizing watches for some time, and in addition to making watches with blacked-out cases and pops of his signature blue, he's worked with plenty of famous characters over the years. Snoopy and Sesame Street show up with some regularity, but recently, it's been Popeye who's had a starring role on Bamford's dials. The old-timey sailor is a great fit for a character watch. Not only does he hail from the golden era of cartoons, just like Mickey and Snoopy, but his outrageously swole forearms work perfectly as exaggerated, cartoonish watch hands. Combine this style with the already 90s-nostalgia-friendly tonneau cases of Franck Muller, and you've got a character watch that is perfectly pitched as a true novelty watch.

Bamford, Genta and others serve as great examples of how character watches have evolved in recent years, but without doubt, the two dominant brands in the space—and for very different reasons — are Audemars Piguet and Omega. Omega's Snoopy watches have been amongst the most coveted Speedmasters released in the last decade, and they come with a long legacy.

Snoopy is as deeply entrenched within the lore of NASA and the Space Race as the Speedmaster itself. The 'Silver Snoopy' award was an honor awarded to NASA staff and contractors for outstanding achievements relating to flight safety or mission success. The pin was designed by Charles M Schulz himself, and has been awarded to nearly 15,000 people, and all Silver Snoopy pins have been flown in space. In this context, Omega's connection with Snoopy has history and heart.

Finally, Audemars Piguet and Marvel. When this partnership debuted with the Black Panther watch (and again, with the Spider-Man watch), the pairing of comics publisher and watchmaker was controversial, to say the least. But in all honesty, it's the perfect pairing. Marvel is so much more than comics in the 21st century. Their MCU has increasingly defined Hollywood for the last 20 years. Alongside that, Audemars Piguet has been incredibly bullish when it comes to building future-facing partnerships with leaders of the next generation. From Jay-Z to Travis Scott, AP has never been shy in pushing the boundaries of convention in Swiss watchmaking. In this light, it is absolutely on-brand for AP to put Spidey on a watch.

Not only do character watches have a long and surprisingly rich history in watchmaking, but the future of complicated timepieces and cartoon characters is looking bright.