Why Is Snoopy the Cartoon King of Watches?

Our watch experts discuss the milestones over the past century that’ve made Snoopy the most beloved animated character in watchmaking.

An image of a Bamford of London watch in black in white positioned in the middle of a black cartoon doorway of a red dog house belonging to snoopy

By Ben Bowers

Published November 15, 2024

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The world is full of popular animated characters beloved by millions of humans around the globe. So how did Snoopy, the anthropomorphic cartoon Beagle who first appeared in Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip 1950, beat out other cultural titans, including Mickey Mouse himself, to become the top dog of the character watch world?

In this podcast episode of season one of Know Your Stuff, Managing Editor Steve Mazzucchi asked our watch editor, Johnny Brayson, to explain the wild and wandering history of milestones behind the modern Snoopy Watch trend.

You can listen to the full episode below, click any of the links to import the Know Your Stuff episode into your podcast platform of choice or download every current and future episode.

You can also read the episode transcript, broken into relevant sections and published alongside relevant images for additional context on the Snoopy Watch trend further down the page.

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The Dawn of Character Watches

A photo of WALT DISNEY COMMISSIONED AND PERSONALLY GIFTED HAMILTON-RICOH DISNEYLAND ELECTRIC — So-called character watches have been a sub-genre in watchmaking for decades. Some are made as cheap novelties for children, while others easily qualify as high-end collector’s items and luxury timepieces depending on their provenance and characteristics. This particular Mickey Mouse watch was commissioned by Walt Disney himself and made by Hamilton-Ricoh in 1965. It was sold by auction at Christie’s in the summer of 2019.

Steve Mazzucchi: Hey, Johnny! I’ve been doing a little watch shopping lately, and I can’t help noticing there’s a lot of Snoopy-themed watches out there and you being our resident watch guy. I’m curious what the deal is.

Johnny Brayson: Steve, I’m glad you asked. For the past several years, Snoopy watches have really become almost, a category unto itself. And I think to understand the trend, you’ve got to go back through the history of what we call character watches, which began way back in the 1930s when a company called Ingersoll first licensed Mickey Mouse to put on a watch.

“I think to understand the trend, you’ve got to go back through the history of what we call character watches, which began way back in the 1930s when a company called Ingersoll first licensed Mickey Mouse to put on a watch.”
– Johnny Brayson

Steve Mazzucchi: Yes, Mickey Mouse definitely have seen him and his little arms on many a watch face as well.

Johnny Brayson: Many a watch face. And most of those watches were very affordable. A lot of times, either intended for children or worn by children. And Mickey was not the only character. Snoopy first appeared on a watch in the 1950s made by another affordable brand called Armitron.

And these cartoon character watches were fairly prevalent, throughout the 20th century, but were never considered a serious watch for obvious reasons. It wasn’t until the mid-’80s when Gerald Genta, who … do you know who that is?

Steve Mazzucchi: I do. Our listeners might so feel free to expand, but I do associate him with a lot like Royal Oak. I want to say yes.

Enter the World’s Most Famous Watch Designer

An image of Gerald Genta as a younger man sitting at a desk covered in watch tools. Genta is smiling for the photo. Is hand is holding a paint brush which he is using to paint what looks like a watch dial. Genta is wearing a blue blazer and a dark navy tie with red diagonal stripes and symbols. Behind Genta is a wall covered in busy wallpaper. — Gerald Genta designed some of the world’s most highly sought-after watches, including the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus. He also played a key role in bringing watchmaking prestige to the character watch category.

Johnny Brayson: So [Gerald Genta] is the one watch designer who most casual watch enthusiasts are going to recognize his name. If you think of, you know, the Rolex Submariner, the Omega Speedmaster or some of these iconic watches, nobody knows who designed them. But Gerald Genta is the one guy who, for whatever reason, was able to get his name out there as a known designer.

So you mentioned the Royal Oak made by Audemars Piguet. That’s probably his best known creation. The Patek Philippe Nautilus is another one. IWC Ingenieur. Universal Genève Polerouter. There’s a bunch like this with his fingerprints are all over. You know, some of the greatest watches of the latter half of the 20th century. And he had his own eponymous brand in the 1980s.

“Cartoon character watches were fairly prevalent, throughout the 20th century, but were never considered a serious watch for obvious reasons.”
– Johnny Brayson

And in 1984, he was exhibiting at a fancy watch trade show in Switzerland with a French name that I’m incapable of pronouncing. And he was set to present watches which featured cartoon characters on the dial. In Mickey Mouse, he had, Pink Panther, and prior to the start of the show, the organizers of the show approached him and we’re like, this is a hilarious prank, but you need to get these off your table before the show actually starts.

And he, as the story goes, he refused to remove the character watches because these were not just any character watches. These were legitimate luxury watches.

They had gold cases. They cost $10,000. He was serious about this. This wasn’t just like a joke. He refused to remove them from his display, and he ended up leaving the show altogether rather than remove the character watches because he took it as the industry at large, the Swiss luxury watch industry being stodgy and stuck in its ways and –

Steve Mazzuchi: Sorry to interrupt, but, and maybe I missed it, but what happened after this? After Genta left that show, after his rejection?

A top down image of a hand holding a sketch of a Mickey Mouse watch signed by Gerald Genta — A Genta-signed sketch showing a Mickey Mouse character watch design.

Johnny Brayson: Yeah. So he went on to release his character watches throughout the 80s. He had a licensing deal with Disney and, he put out several of these watches that were very high end, highly complicated luxury watches featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck. I think there’s some Goofy ones out there. And the watches featured, what came to be known as sort of his signature complication, which is a mix of a jumping hour, which is on the dial, you’ll have a digital display, digital meaning number is not electronics, but digital display where the hour every time you reach a new hour, the will jumps.

So when it’s 1:00, it’ll say one. And then it just switches to two. Okay. And then combined with a retrograde minutes. So that’s where the minutes are displayed from 0 to 60 in an arc on the dial. And a hand will follow along. And then once it hits 60, it then snaps back to zero. And, the hour jumps.

And so these Disney watches, they’re actually quite interesting. And that they’ll feature Mickey or Donald or whatever Disney character sometimes playing a sport, that minute hand is actually Donald’s club, as he’s holding it. So he’s swinging it up and then essentially when he hits 60, then rockets back to zero.

Steve Mazzucchi: So is there a watch soccer one by any chance?

Johnny Brayson: I’m almost positive there is.

Steve Mazzucchi: Oh man I’m going to have to look that up. Alright.

Johnny Brayson: They are quite pricey because these were luxury watches to begin with, high end mechanical complications. And they fetch a pretty decent price on on eBay, if you can find some.

The Gérald Genta Only Watch 2023 shown face on against a light grey background. The Watch is octagonally shaped in silver and shows Mickey Mouse holding a birthday cake with candles in it surrounded by confetti. — The first watch the Gerald Genta brand released after it was resurrected by LMVH was a Mickey Mouse-themed retrograde jumping hour for Only Watch.

Steve Mazzucchi: Gotcha. I guess what’s interesting here, too, is that the hoity-toity watch show people did not take this seriously, but the market did. People bought these things and were into them.

Johnny Brayson: People bought them. They made them for several years. I don’t have access to Gerald Genta sales data in the 80s. I don’t know if they were hot sellers, but they’re certainly beloved now. To the point actually, last year when LVMH, which now owns the Gerald Genta brand name, when they resurrected the brand, the first watch that they put out was a new version of the Mickey Mouse with the retrograde minutes and an hour.

Johnny Brayson: So this was made for Only Watch, which is a big charity event where a brand will make a single watch to be auctioned off for charity. And obviously they felt well enough about the history of the Genta character watches to reenter the market. With that, as the big headliner.

NASA’s Silver Snoopy Award

A graphic showing the year 2003 in white and the name Snoopy in large red letters. A version of the Omega Speedmaster sits in the middle of the graphic. There is also a cut out circle of an illustrated version of snoopy in a space suit on the subdial. — The first Omega Speedmaster to feature Snoopy launched in 2003 to commemorate the NASA “Silver Snoopy Award” that OMEGA received in 1970 for helping to safely return the Apollo 13 crew.

Steve Mazzucchi: So this brings us to, you know, out of the 30s or the 50s or whatever into slightly more modern times. And, you know, at least with this one watchmaker, there was a strain of people responding to this thing, but then it proliferated. Right? What happened after that?

Johnny Brayson: The whole character watch thing didn’t really go mainstream and become this sort of hype machine until really the last decade. And the reason for that has to do with Omega.

So Omega is obviously a huge brand, far less niche than Gerald Genta, but it’s also a luxury brand is something that people strive for.

And Omega’s flagship watch is, of course, the Speedmaster, the watch that went to the moon. It’s the watch that everybody knows. And in 2003, Omega released a Speedmaster with Snoopy. But this wasn’t just like an act of a brand, just randomly licensing a character and just having fun like Gerald was.

An image of an Apollo 13 Astronaut wearing a Omega Speedmaster watch on his wrist inside the capsule. The photograph is positioned next to a product image of the Omega Speedmaster watch against a grey background. — The Omega Speedmaster chronograph was famously worn and used by the crew of Apollo 13 to manually time the critical navigational rocket burns that helped them return to Earth.

Johnny Brayson: This was a watch that was backed by a pretty unique and interesting history. So, if we go back to the late 1960s, NASA was looking for a way to raise more public awareness about the space program and about the people involved with it because it wasn’t just the astronauts who were responsible for these incredible feats.

There are thousands of people that are involved in literally every single mission that help ensure that astronauts complete the mission to return home safely. So they came up with an idea, an award that would be presented by astronauts to NASA contractors and also just NASA, civilian employees. You know, people whom without they wouldn’t have been able to safely complete these missions.

And they wanted it to be a symbol that could be recognized and accepted by the general public and beloved. And in doing their research, they discovered that at the time, the most recognizable government symbol was Smokey the Bear.

1989; Smokey Bear poster showing a half body image of Smokey pointing at the audience with one hand while holding a shovel in the other hand. Poster reads "Only You". This work is maintained in the National Agricultural Library, in Beltsville, MD. — NASA was looking for a symbol like Smokey the Bear that would be widely recognized and loved to represent the civilian workers and contractors who played a critical role in America’s space missions to the moon. They eventually settled on Snoopy, given that the agency already used the character name internally as a nickname for the lunar module. It also helped that Charles Schulz, the creator of Snoopy, was a fan of the space program and was willing to license the use of Snoopy for free.

Steve Mazzucchi: Oh, wow. Okay. Interesting.

Johnny Brayson: So they wanted a space-faring equivalent to…

Steve Mazzucchi: Smokey in space would have been amazing!

Johnny Brayson: Well, they’d have to put a shirt on him.

Steve Mazzucchi:Yeah, that’s that’s a good point. And how do you fit a helmet over that hat?

Johnny Brayson: Yeah the hat’s in his contract. It’s in his rider. You can’t lose the hat.

“But somebody came up with the idea of, ‘Why don’t we do Snoopy?’ And it just so happened that the lunar module of Apollo 10 was nicknamed Snoopy.”
– Johnny Brayson

Johnny Brayson: But somebody came up with the idea of ‘why don’t we do Snoopy?’ And it just so happened that the lunar module of Apollo 10 was nicknamed Snoopy.

Its job was to snoop around on the lunar surface. So like the name Snoopy was already bandied about casually by astronauts. So when they approached peanuts creator Charles Schulz with the idea he was a big backer of the space program, and ended up licensing Snoopy to NASA for free to use in this award.

Steve Mazzucchi: Wow.

Johnny Brayson: So the award became known as the Silver Snoopy Award. It’s a sterling silver pin, and it’s a rare honor to be given this award.

The Nasa Silver Snoopy Award pin shown resting in a black jewelry box. The box is sitting on top of a cartoon drawing of Snoopy that matches the silver pin of him floating in space. Snoopy is white and the background of the cartoon is a royal blue. — The Silver Snoopy Award is a high honor described in the following way by NASA: “The Silver Snoopy best symbolizes the intent and spirit of Space Flight Awareness. An astronaut always presents the Silver Snoopy because it is the astronauts’ own award for outstanding performance, contributing to flight safety and mission success. Fewer than 1 percent of the aerospace program workforce receive it annually, making it a special honor to receive this award. The award is a sterling silver Snoopy lapel pin that has flown in space, plus a certificate of appreciation and commendation letter for the employee, both signed by the astronaut.”

Johnny Brayson: So where does Omega fit?

As I mentioned, they they supplied the Speedmaster to NASA starting in the 1960s. It went on to be worn on the moon. It was worn by the astronauts throughout the Apollo missions, including on Apollo 13, and the Speedmaster actually played a role in that mission where, you know, because they had to shut off all their equipment with the problems.

If you’ve seen the Tom Hanks and Ken Bacon movie, they used the Omega to time the engine burns, which was very critical for them actually making it home safely.

Steve Mazzucchi: Some people think Omega orchestrated that whole, [Apollo 13] disaster as a promotional move.

Johnny Brayson: I mean some people think Omega orchestrated the whole moon landing. So. Yeah. Omega was awarded the Silver Snoopy Award in 1970.

But [the Silver Snoopy Award] was for their entire role in the space program up to that point.

Omega’s Snoopy Watches Begin

A graphic highlighting the launch of the Omega Silver Snoopy Award Watch in 2015. The graphic shows the year 2015 in white and the name Silver Snoopy Award in Red. The watch itself, an Omega Speedmaster with a white face and a black dial and black strap is also shown head on sitting between the 20 and 15 of the date. The entire background of the image is black. — The Speedmaster Moonwatch Anniversary Apollo XIII 45th Anniversary ‘Silver Snoopy Award,’ released in 2015, quickly became a highly coveted luxury timepiece. Today, the watch costs between $40,000 and $50,000 on secondary grey markets.

Johnny Brayson: It wasn’t until 2003 when they first came out with a Snoopy watch and that one, I think, hit maybe a little early. This is pre-social media, pre-hype culture. But fast-forward twelve years, and in 2015, Omega came out with the second Silver Snoopy as a 45th-anniversary version.

One was a monochrome black and white speedy had Snoopy on the dial. It had a little slogan of “what can you do in 14 seconds” on the tachometer, because that’s how long it took for them to time the engine burns. So it became an extremely popular item and highly sought after.

The Omega Speedmaster Annniversary Series "Silver Snoopy Award" watch shown at an angle laying on a newspaper cartoon featuring Snoopy. The Watch is white with blue marking on the dials and subdials and outer dial. It also features a blue strap. — Our own watch expert, Johnny Brayson, describes the 50th-anniversary edition of the Silver Snoopy Omega Speedmaster series as “maybe the coolest watch Omega has ever made.”

Johnny Brayson: Fast-forward another five years and in 2020 Omega comes out with a 50th anniversary Silver Snoopy watch.

“It maybe the coolest watch Omega has ever made. For one, it’s another white Speedmaster, but with a blue Panda layout. So it’s just it’s beautiful. But it also notably has an animated caseback.”
– Johnny Brayson

It is maybe the coolest watch Omega has ever made. For one, it’s another white Speedmaster, but with a blue Panda layout. So it’s just it’s beautiful. But it also has notably an animated caseback.

Steve Mazzucchi: Oh yes, I know the one you’re talking about.

Johnny Brayson: Yeah, there’s like outer space and you can see Earth on the back of it and the surface of the moon.

A close up shot of the caseback of the Omega 50th Anniversary edition Silver Snoopy watch. It shows the surface of the moon with the earh in the distance right background. Snoopy appears as a tiny character riding in a white rocket towards the moon. — The standout feature of the Omega Speedmaster Anniversary series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the brand receiving the Silver Snoopy award is actually the caseback. As Omega describes it, “the NAIAD LOCK caseback .. has been decorated on the sapphire crystal using micro-structured metallization. An animated Snoopy in his Command and Service Module (CSM) is shown on a magical hand, which rotates when the chronograph function is used. Behind, an Earth disc rotates once per minute in sync with the watch’s small seconds hand.”

Johnny Brayson: And then when you run the chronograph, Snoopy actually flies by inside the Snoopy lunar capsule. And so that watch, it’s been out for four years now, and it’s still nearly impossible to get.

It’s notorious for having these years-long waitlists where if you want to buy one at retail, and it’s roughly a $10,000 watch, you have to wait years.

Now Snoopy Is Everywhere

The Seiko 5 Sports X Peanuts ‘Surfboard’ Limited Edition Watch shown against a light grey background. The face of the watch is white and features a small illustration of Snoopy holding a surfboard wedged in the sand. The surfboard reads "Seiko 5 Sports" — The Seiko 5 Sports x Peanuts ‘Surfboard’ Limited Edition was released to commemorate the 55th Anniversary of Seiko 5 Sports watches.

Johnny Brayson: And because of that [the desirability for Omega’s Snoopy watches], as we’ve seen with a lot of sports models, it’s the same situation with the Rolex Submariner, where if you want one right away, you’re going to pay probably double on the secondary market.

And so that watch in particular I think is really responsible for the spate of Snoopy watches we’ve seen just over the past few years, because I think a lot of people really desire that watch, especially and having all of these alternatives pop up has given people the opportunity to get this cartoon beagle on their wrist without waiting years or spending tens of thousands of dollars.

So I think that’s why most of the Snoopy watches that are out there now are from brands like Timex or Swatch. Swatch even put out a couple of MoonSwatches this year with Snoopy, which are — that’s an Omega collab — so it’s very directly tied in.

An Apple watch on a yellow rubber strap. The image is face on and shows a special snoopy watch face. Snoopy appears from the bottom of the watch screen with his arms outstretched. Woodstock is sitting on the second hand. — The Snoopy Watch craze isn’t just exclusive to mechanical watches. Today, there are several Apple Watch faces that feature the iconic beagle in addition to other *Peanuts* characters.

Steve Mazzucchi: And that probably has boosted interest in that original Omega as well.

Johnny Brayson: The MoonSwatch, in general, boosted Speedmaster sales. So yeah, I’m sure that even more people are interested in that [Snoopy] Omega.

But even on the higher end as well. Bamford watch department, they’ve had a few Snoopy collabs, including one fairly recently with Franck Muller that had an MSRP of $30,000.

So that Snoopy Speed is too pedestrian for you, you can even go higher for this watch.

Steve Mazzucchi: Does it do anything cool like Snoopy floating behind the lunar module?

Johnny Brayson: It does something cool. I wouldn’t say it does something that cool, but this watch — it has Franck Muller’s signature Crazy Hours complication. So the watch, instead of being laid out one through 12, the numbers are out of order on a dial.

And then the hands, which are Snoopy’s hands, every time you reach new are they then flip to wherever the next hour is? if 3:00 is at the normal spot where 8:00 would be, once it’s 3:00, the hand just shoots over down to that 8:00 where the 3:00.

The Franck Muller x Bamford Watch Department Snoopy-inspired Crazy Hours watch was limited to 25 pieces. It features Muller’s signature Crazy Hours complication. The concentric circles surrounding Snoopy on the dial are also luminous and spotlight Snoopy’s distinct silhouette in dark conditions.

Bamford Watch Department

Steve Mazzucchi: Gotcha. For most of us, we hear at Timex and we think of something much more accessible.

And in general, just the notion of collabs has been something that yeah, in the internet hype era, we see all the time. And there have been a ton of collaborative watch efforts. But I’m curious for somebody who, like me, wants to score a Snoopy watch but doesn’t want to spend $10,000 or get on a waiting list or any of that sort of thing, what are some options that are more accessible?

Johnny Brayson: The MoonSwatches are, they’re really cool, but like most MoonSwatches, they’re not easy to get. The Snoopy ones, which also feature a moon phase complication, which is another fun little feature of those watches, so those are going to be hard to get.

Steve Mazzucchi: But the actual cost of them is not that high, right?

white moonswatch dial showing snoopy — The Mission to the Moonphase was the first MoonSwatch to feature Snoopy. Snoopy appears in the moon phase subdial and shares a message that only appears in darkness via lume. There’s also a nod to the beagle on the back of the watch.

Johnny Brayson: Yeah, they’re like, they’re 300-something dollars. It’s just it’s the issue of having to physically be there and having them in stock, which are two pretty big challenges.

Steve Mazzucchi: And so you can get them online on the secondary market, but probably not for $300, I’m guessing.

Johnny Brayson: Exactly. Yeah. The prices again going to be inflated and they’re going to be rare because there’s not that many of them. So I think they came out maybe around the beginning of 2024. So I think the secondary market was probably some initial wave of flippers trying to like, get rid of them and make a quick buck off of them. But I think now that they’ve been out for a while, they’re probably they’re not going to pop up as often.

So if you are in the market for a Snoopy watch, I honestly would just go to Timex. Timex has a whole Peanuts line and some of them have the whole gang. Some of them just feature Charlie Brown, some have Woodstock, but obviously a lot feature Snoopy.

The Timex Marlin® Hand-Wound x Snoopy Tennis 34mm Leather Strap Watch with a green dial on a white background — Johnny’s personal favorite obtainable Snoopy watch is the Timex Marlin Hand-Wound x Snoopy Tennis 34mm Leather Strap Watch. It cost just $229 and was available in several striking colors.

Johnny Brayson: My personal favorite is one that sort of recalls a lot of the classic character watches that would use the character’s arms as the hands of the watch, but it’s a mechanical watch. It’s part of Timex Marlin Collection. Okay. And this is a tennis-themed watch. So Snoopy is holding a racket, which is one of the hands, and then another hand is represented by a tennis ball that’s on a clear hand.

So it looks like it’s just floating around the dial. And you can get this for around 200 bucks for a mechanical Timex with Snoopy. Yeah. And I think that’s the closest thing you can get to emulate the fun you might get from that really cool and impossible to buy Omega, for a couple hundred bucks.

Steve Mazzucchi: Wow. Yeah, much better deal. And I’ve heard good things about the Marlin in general that seems like a better bet. Unless Franck Muller wants to send me one of those $30,000 ones just to review and hold on to for a little bit.

Mykim Dang: Thanks for listening to this episode of Know Your Stuff. This week’s episode was produced and hosted by me, MyKim Dang. With special thanks to Zen Love, Johnny Bryson, and Steve Mazzuchi.

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