Monday, May 25, 2026

Watch My Ketchup Post!

 A double pun! Don't worry, there's no extra charge. Today I'm featuring a little item that I bought off of Facebook Marketplace last week. I really didn't know anything about it before I bought it, but I knew that it looked pretty cool and I had never seen one before. Most of all, I liked that it said "Disneyland" on it. 

So, I drove an hour across town with my ever-patient wife, plunked down our money and bought this...


Yep! It's a giant Mickey Mouse watch wall clock! The whole thing is about three feet long (with strap), and runs on a quartz clock movement.

Here is a close up of the dial...


Ketchup? Disneyland ketchup? What is this thing all about anyway? Well, I did a little digging and found out that this little item is from the early 1980s. Disneyland (and Walt Disney World) made a deal with Hunt's ketchup so that it was the "official ketchup of Disneyland!" In fact, I found this commercial with Roy Clark...


Apparently, these watches/clocks were made to promote this brand relationsip. They were never sold to the general public, but were used in grocery stores for end-cap displays of Hunts ketchup. After the promotion, they were supposed to be destroyed, or at least thrown away, but many weren't because they were pretty cool. Still, they're pretty rare.

Also, apparently, the strap is difficult to find in good condition because the vinyl degrades and gets sticky as it ages. The strap on this one isn't sticky at all, though, so it must have been kept in a cool place. 



The going rate for an unworking display only example is about 50-100 dollars while a fully working example goes for closer to 75-150. I paid 20 bucks for mine, which doesn't work, so I did ok. What's better, though, is that the clock movement is a standard quartz movement, and the clock is easy to disassemble. I have a new movement on order as we speak!

So there you have it! A fun piece of Disneyland history that will look good on the wall! 

By the way, if you go to Disneyland, don't look for Hunts ketchup. Although the exact date is difficult to pin down, by 2010 Disney was dealing with Heinz rather than Hunts. 

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

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4 comments:

  1. JBMay 25, 2026 at 10:36 PM

    What a weirdly neat thing! At first, looking at the thumbnail image, I thought it was a regular Mickey Mouse watch. But then I wondered why the strap looked so wonky. And then the big reveal... It's a wall clock!

    Man! I got an earache hearing that little girl's high pitched, shrill voice in that commercial. Thanks for the link though. ;-p

    I wouldn't mind having one of these myself. Like you said, even if it doesn't work, you can get cheap clock movements just about anywhere. We've replaced several clock movements in our clocks over the years.

    For several years, back in the '70s and '80s, I had one of those clocks that ran backwards (and numbered backwards). We also have a (still working) cuckoo clock that my brother brought back from Germany when he was stationed there, in the Air Force in the '80s.

    I've always preferred Heinz over Hunts ketchup, so Disney made a good choice. :-D

    Thanks, Stu.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stu29573May 26, 2026 at 9:35 AM

    Thanks!
    Yeah, I had never seen one before so I jumped on it (not literally, it's plastic and would have broken). I kind of wish the commercial had somehow included the clock (which would have been weird, but cool). The movement should be here in a couple days. I'll do an update when I get it all fixed up! Heinz is the better ketchup, I think, but that may be just because I like their streak sauce.
    The backwards clock sounds cool...and confusing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 29, 2026 at 12:16 AM

    Stu, I love this wall watch/clock! My dad had one with Mickey on it, but no other words on the face [from what I remember]. I have no idea what happened to it. You found a fun treasure!

    ReplyDelete

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