An old MIckey Mouse animation.
There have been plenty of watchmakers who have had Disney collaborations, the most famous being Gerald Genta’s Retro Fantasy Jumping Hours Disney editions. I honestly regret not buying them while prices were lower. But I came across a Seiko 5000-7000 Walt Disney Mickey in 2011, and fell in love with it almost instantaneously.
A Gerald Genta Retro Fantasy Jumping Hours Mickey Mouse, sold at Christie's. Image courtesy of Christie's.
These watches were
Walt Disney Productions, created in the 1970s for Walt Disney World and later further developed for
Tokyo Disneyland. (Seiko also developed a Disneyland special edition for the opening of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983.) For me, what’s particularly memorable with this watch is visiting the Seiko Museum in Tokyo and chatting with the museum curator, who confessed they didn’t have one in their museum.
The Gucci Grip Mickey Mouse edition for 2020, commemorating the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Rat.
There are plenty of other great Mickey collab watches over the years, from the Rolex 6694 to Ingersoll’s memorable True Original in 2018, the
Swatch Damien Hirst collab and most recently, the
Gucci Grip Mickey this year to commemorate the Chinese zodiac calendar of the Rat. And each and every Disney fan will have his or her own preference. But for me, the 5000-7000 is something I’m taking to the grave/The Bad Place.