Cartoon Character Watches - When Cartoons Collaborate with Watches

Cartoons - an internationally recognised form of entertainment, with many people growing up with the iconic characters. The feeling of nostalgia is prevalent when seeing these characters now, and so watch brands and cartoons are collaborating, creating unique and abstract timepieces to give the wearer that feeling of nostalgia every time they look at their wrist, with some fetching hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to own, due to the exclusivity and mechanical complications integrated in the pieces. Some may dislike the cartoon crossovers, due to the often bright colours and childish graphics, whereas some may like to be reminded of good childhood memories and yearn to own a unique and fun timepiece from some of these great brands.

We have compiled a list of some of the most well-known cartoon character watches and from the biggest brands, fetching the most value.

The first watch(es) on this list is the Oris ProPilot X variants, in which Oris collaborated with The Muppets to release two watches - the ProPilot X Kermit Edition and the ProPilot X Miss Piggy Edition, with the Miss Piggy Edition aimed at a Female audience, delivered in a 34MM case, and the Kermit Edition is housed in the standard 39MM dimensions of the ProPilot X Collection.

The Kermit Edition follows the standard sizing and features of the regular ProPilot X, with a titanium case and bracelet, and housing the Caliber 400 movement with a 5-day power reserve. The unique features of this watch are the date window, as can be seen above - as on the date wheel, Kermit replaces the digit '1', as the first day of the month shows Kermit in the date window instead. The dial colour also follows the theme to make the watch furthermore unique, using the Kermit-Green colour. As this piece is unique, it comes in at £3,800 - £150 more expensive than the regular ProPilot X.

The Miss Piggy Edition watch is slightly more unique to the Kermit Edition, as it is a women's watch - therefore the case is 34MM and it is also made from Stainless Steel instead of the Titanium Kermit. This piece is also more discreet with the cartoon theming, with the Miss Piggy character appearing on the caseback, rather than the dial, but does still use plenty of pink to associate. At 12 O'Clock, there is a lab-grown baguette diamond, to associate with the character's personality and make this watch that bit more special. Unfortunately, there is no date function on this watch as it differs in the movement from the regular ProPilot X Caliber 400. Instead, it uses the Caliber 531, which has no date and a power reserve of only 42 hours - still fairly good, but not close to the 5-days of the regular model. This Miss Piggy Edition retails for £2,500 - significantly less expensive than the Kermit and regular ProPilot X models, but it is a women's watch with less features, so is expected.

2ND on this list is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept - 'Spider Man'. This watch was released in 2023 to much attention as it was the successor of the Black Panther Concept - another of AP's Marvel Cartoon Crossovers, but this focuses specifically on the Spider Man model.

Initially, AP sold a 1 of 1 White Gold Spider Man Concept Royal Oak with Spiderman dressed in black on the dial, which sold for $6.2 Million.

Then the 250-piece main collection followed, which retailed at CHF 195,000 each, due to Audemars Piguet going above and beyond as usual to create a special timepiece for collectors, as the Spider Man in the dial is 3D engraved by hand and machine to create the effect and incredible detail. The Calibre 2948 also had to be modified to accommodate the Spider Man dial, with the removal of parts to allow the 3D effect to take place, adding to the craftsmanship and complexity of the piece, resulting in the hand-wound Calibre 2974, a movement specific to this piece.

This is top-tier watchmaking, modifying the movement to convey the message of the watch, and making it work to this level - something that even if the cartoon doesn't appeal to someone, they can definitely still appreciate the watch. In fact, this watch is so impressively executed, the cartoon becomes cool, not novelty.

The Third watch(es) on this list of Five is the Citizen Mickey and Minnie Mouse Inspired Tsuyosa's.

Citizen have collaborated with Disney many times over the years, however the Tsuyosa model is great, and these models are a personal favourite of the collaborations, so these are featured on this particular list, however if you want a full overview of the Disney x Citizen Collaborations, a blog will be coming soon.

Each Piece uses the base Tsuyosa case, movement and materials, but the dial and packaging is unique to the Disney theme, with the Mickey Mouse Edition on the Sea Blue Tsuyosa model and the Minnie Mouse being a unique Sunray Pink Dial. Both models are a 40MM case size, which makes sense for the blue piece, but the pink model is also 40MM, which you would think they would use the 34MM Tsuyosa model for women for this watch, since in both Western Culture and Japan - where Citizen watches are made - Pink is associated with Women, and it is unlikely for many women's wrists to be able to accommodate the 40MM case size.

What makes these watches a personal favourite of the collaborations between Citizen and Disney is the unique execution in which the hands of the cartoon is the watch hands, making for a unique time-reading experience to other watches. The models use an automatic Citizen movement with 42 hours of power reserve, which considering for the price tag of £349, is pretty good value for the features on this watch.

The 4th watch on this list is the Omega 50th Anniversary Silver Snoopy Speedmaster - a desirable Speedmaster in the collection, with it being one of the few Omega watches with a Waiting List, due to the watch being an anniversary special edition, but not limited.

This watch is a great all-rounded watch, with the highlight for me being the caseback, which showcases Omega's attention-to-detail, with a small earth disc rotating in line with the small seconds on the chronograph on the dial, and snoopy on a hand on the back also aligned with use of the chronograph.

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It retails for £10,000, and reported wait times are 2 months up to 3 years, depending on location and boutique supply numbers. 

It is also quite a large watch, with a 42MM case diameter and 47.5MM lug-to-lug distance, so this is one for the bigger wrists, much like many of the Speedmasters. This larger case size is necessary to house the In-house Calibre 3861, which is Master Co-Axial Chronometer certified, providing the wearer with a super-reliable movement for this luxury piece. This movement comes with a 50-hour Power Reserve, enough to leave the watch for the weekend, but it is manual winding, which some may like, some not.

The piece comes on the blue nylon strap as can be seen in the images above, but unfortunately the traditional Speedmaster bracelet has to be purchased separately.

The final watch on this list is the Konstantin Chaykin Minions watch, part of the Wristmons collection from the independent watchmaker.

The watch was unveiled at the Dubai Watch Week in 2021, and is a unique collaboration from Universal Studios and Konstantin Chaykin, the Independent watchmaker from Russia.

The movement in this watch, the K.07-3 Caliber, was created by Mr. Chaykin specifically for this watch, including the joker time-indication component, where the time can be read using the eyes of the character on the dial, with the left eye being hours and right eye being minutes. This in-house movement has a power reserve of 42 hours, and the case housing the movement is 40mm in diameter.

The watch was a limited edition production, with only 38 created, and so can only be picked up on the secondary market for around £30,000 - £38,000.

Thank You for reading this Blog, and let us know your thoughts on our list, and what did we miss?