Ingersoll

Charles and Robert Ingersoll started selling watches by mail order from New York in 1892, and in 1896 introduced the Yankee at one dollar. It was the first watch a working American could simply buy, and it sold in enormous numbers — the company's slogan, that it was the watch that made the dollar famous, was barely an exaggeration.

Volume on that scale changed the industry. Ingersoll sold tens of millions of watches, produced the first Mickey Mouse watch in 1933 under licence from Disney, and for a time was among the largest watch companies in the world.

The American business did not survive the century intact, and the name passed through several hands. It is now owned by a British company, which relaunched it in 2016 around mechanical watches rather than the cheap quartz the name had drifted into.

The modern collection leans on automatics with open dials and prominent date and day complications, priced in the low hundreds. It has little manufacturing continuity with the original firm, but the name and the Yankee heritage are genuine.

Ingersoll holds 8 models, from £179 to £277. Half cost less than £240, and a quarter less than £215. 8 of 8 are automatic. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1892

The Ingersoll brothers begin selling watches by mail order.

1896

The Yankee sells for one dollar.

1933

Produces the first Mickey Mouse watch.

1968

The original American company is broken up.

2016

Relaunched under British ownership around mechanical watches.