Following on the Ingraham watch Professor posted above, here are a couple other "dollar" watches of mine from the same period. The U.S.-based Ingersoll Watch Co. is perhaps the best known and prolific of the dollar watch manufacturers. Over a twenty year period, Ingersoll sold nearly forty million dollar watches. The company's slogan was, "The watch that made the dollar famous!" In the early years of the 20th century Ingersoll began manufacturing watches in England (Ingersoll Ltd.), and sold them for five shillings -- the equivalent of one dollar. Ingersoll went bankrupt in 1921, and was bought out the following year by the Waterbury Clock Company (of Connecticut), which had initially produced its watches. The company changed its name to Ingersoll-Waterbury. It was the first company to produce Mickey Mouse watches, selling over five million in the first fifteen years. The Waterbury Clock Company went on to be renamed the U.S. Time Corporation....now known as the Timex Group U.S..
The second dollar watch, having an octagonal case, was made by the New Haven Clock Company (also of Connecticut) and was commonly sold under the brand name Tip-Top. This particular watch is a promotional item of the Poll-Parrot Shoe Company. The watch represents an interesting, and low cost, means of adapting a pocket watch movement to a wristwatch -- i.e., rotating the crown slightly to the 1:30 position and attaching simple wire lugs to the case.
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