The company produced its first watch, dubbed the Yankee, in 1896. It was priced at the bargain price of US $1. By 1916 nearly 40 million of the watches had been produced.

The company were pioneers in mass production. Until the debut of their trusted brand, items such as pocket watches had been expensive luxury items, available only to a select few. This was because of the intensive highly skilled labour required in the process.

The company’s original production technology owes a large debt to the techniques introduced by Henry Ford of automated production. The watchmaker applied this technology to the newly developing demand for wristwatches.

The company also became known for producing some of the first novelty watches such as the Mickey Mouse watch. The first timepiece featuring the Disney cartoon favourite was produced in 1933. By 1935 more than 2.5 million of the watches had been sold.

The watches were sold around the world and soon the company were producing watches for more than 20 countries.

The Ingersoll watches brand is seen as quintessentially American and was worn by the likes of Huckleberry Finn author Mark Twain and the inventor of the light bulb Thomas Edison. They watches world-wide appeal was underlined by the possession of an Ingersoll watches pocket watch by Indian independence leader Ghandi.

Today the tradition of offering high quality at affordable prices continues.