Expert: Melvin Mills - 10/18/2010

Question
I inherited a Mickey Mouse watch by Helbros.  It has a silver face Mickey is facing the nine o'clock position. It has a second hand. There are yellow dots on the hour marks. On the back it reads "Base metal Bezel" and St. Steel Back.  on the face it reads HELBROS with an R in a circle. There are no other distinguishing marks or writing on the case.  I have not looked inside the case.The band is stainless steel with USA on each stretch link. I don't know if the band is original or not. The watch is a wind up and works well, keeping excellent time.  It is in mint condition.  Can you tell me anything about my watch?

Answer
Helbros began in 1913. The name actually comes from its founders, the Helbein Brothers. They were middle class Swiss German watchmakers who set out with one primary goal...that goal being to design and manufacture a quality timepiece that could be made affordable to the working public. 1913 was an era when only the relatively well-to-do could afford a timepiece.

The two brother’s success was enough to make their watch brand, Helbros, a household name throughout the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. In the 1940’s, Helbros was very much in the midst of the War Bond efforts of the United States. In the 1960’s, they designed a watch that actually told lunar time. The interesting part of the history of Helbros is that while other watch companies have changed ownership many, many times in their relatively short history, Helbros has only ever been in the hands of three ownerships…each interestingly enough trained by the previous.

The current Helbros still boasts management dating to 1972, trained by the management in place from the 1940’s, in turn trained by the Helbeins themselves.

If there is anything else I can add, let me know please.

Kind regards,

Melvin