Ingersoll Watch Company

Ingersoll is an originally American watch brand.

History

1880 founded the brothers Robert Hawley and Charles Henry Ingersoll in New York mail order Robert H. Ingersoll & Brother. From 1892 they sold the first watches produced by the Waterbury Clock Company.

"Dollar Watch"

In 1896, the brothers Ingersoll introduced the pocket watch " Yankee ". Due to their distinctive selling price of $ 1.00 (at that time about one day's wages ), it was under the name "Dollar Watch" world famous. 1899 8.000 piece of stamped parts in cheaper mass production were prepared daily. Within 20 years, more than 40 million of these watches were sold.

1905 Ingersoll went to England and offered there, the "Crown" pocket watch for the price of 5 shillings (then about $ 1.00 ) to. Produced these were of the Ingersoll Watch Company Ltd.. in London.

Insolvency and takeover

In December 1921 had to declare bankruptcy " Robert H. Ingersoll & Brother". Until that time, the company had already sold about 70 million watches. 1922, was taken over by the Waterbury Clock Company at a price of $ 1.5 million, but not without the resistance of the two brothers. This retained the brand name and sold under him, among other things, the first Mickey Mouse clock in which the hands were designed in the form of the hands of Mickey Mouse.

Ingersoll today

The trademarks worldwide, except in the U.S. and Canada, in Nice class 14 part Ingersoll Ltd.. in London. Their owner is the Zeon Ltd. in London. The trademark for the U.S. and Canada still holds the Timex Group as the successor of the Waterbury Watch Company.

In Germany, Austria and Italy, the company Cristano GmbH in Bühl (Baden) sells the watches. In Switzerland, the watches are marketed by Korda Cristal Boutique in Rapperswil -Jona.