A rare, and culturally significant, advertising poster for the Dirty Time Company Spiro Agnew Watch, c. 1969. The poster depicts President Nixon as Mickey Mouse wearing a watch showing Nixon’s Vice President, Spiro Agnew, in a star-spangled boxer’s outfit. Nixon/Mickey Mouse can be seen repeating a contemporary joke, “Did you know Mickey Mouse wears a Spiro Agnew watch?”. The meaning behind this joke is that Agnew (who had strong conservative and pro Vietnam War views) was such a cartoon/joke character that the ultimate cartoon character, Mickey Mouse, would wear a watch with Agnew’s face on it. The watch itself was based on a popular Mickey Mouse wristwatch, with cartoon hands pointing to the time.

Produced by a family business in California, the watch (and joke) was adopted by the anti-Vietnam War lobby and briefly became a political fashion accessory with  orders placed by the likes of Ethel Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and John Lennon.

Although examples of the watch survive today, we have never seen a copy of the original promotional poster for sale.

A higher resolution image is available for viewing on request.