celebrate 75 years of Dennis the Menace with Mr Jones Watches!

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:03][music] >> Hey, welcome back. Welcome to another Tales from the Workshop from Mr. Jones Watches. This week, I'm really happy to announce our newest watch, which is a collaboration with Beano to celebrate Dennis the Menace's 75th anniversary.

[00:00:20]So, this is the watch. On it, you can see Dennis and Gnasher are tumbling through the air.

[00:00:26]So, Dennis's outstretched arm points to the minutes, and Gnasher leaping for a sausage points to the hours. And in the very center, there's a banana skin, which is what they both slipped up on, which is acting as the the sort of seconds hand.

[00:00:46]This is the case back to the watch. So, you can see we've got this embossed Dennis and Gnasher, which is a really nice feature on there. And then the edition number and the other information engraved around the edge.

[00:01:07]So, this is the packaging for the watch.

[00:01:10]This is the slipcase. We've got like this pearlescent print for the Dennis 75th anniversary logo. And then we've got this sort of sequence from the comic strip laid out on the the slipcase. So, Dennis enjoying the slap-up feed, Gnasher stealing one of his sausages, Dennis goes chasing after him, and then they're both sent tumbling by the banana skin.

[00:01:35]For the insert card, we've tried to incorporate a bit of the the Beano humor and sense of mischief. So, there's the tomato splat on our logo, Dennis is messing around on a rope on the front.

[00:01:48]But on the inside, we've included loads of Dennis doodles, where we'd normally have our very clean graphic design. And there's even a little Nasher on the back stealing more sausages.

[00:02:01]Um the strap for the watch is a kind of reference to the Dennis red and black striped jumper. So, it's black leather with the red stitch, and then we've got these contrasting red keepers.

[00:02:17]For those who don't know, Beano is a very popular comic here in the UK aimed at children, and Dennis the Menace is really their flagship character.

[00:02:25]Dennis the Menace sort of represents misrule and mischief and standing up to parents, and I guess the sort of secret world of children that's away from adults. So, when Beano approached us about doing a collaboration, we really jumped at the the chance. Like, it was such a part of of my childhood, and I know a lot of other people within the company feel the same.

[00:02:48]I acknowledge there is some confusion for our American audience because Dennis the Menace in America is a very different character, but this is the the British Dennis the Menace as seen in the Beano. It was a really good sort of active collaboration that we had with the the team at DC Thomson, who are the the owners of Beano. So, particularly Robin and Sonia, who are part of the licensing team, were like really helpful for us in getting feedback on the design and helping it to evolve along the way.

[00:03:16]But also, Craig, who's director of mischief at Beano, and Nigel Parkinson, who's the artist who draws Dennis.

[00:03:23]All of the the team there were like really helpful at helping us to achieve this, and I think they were really happy with how engaged we were with the process. And And I guess the fact that we didn't just want to take some of their existing assets and put them directly onto onto the watch face. So, this is all special artwork that was drawn up for us for for the purposes of this watch. The reason that Dennis and Nasher are tumbling is kind of explained on the the strip on the dial, which is a strip that that Craig kind of wrote the narrative for and then Nigel illustrated. So, yeah, we worked really hard to make something that we're really proud of and that really celebrates Dennis the Menace as a character. As with all of our watches, we did all of the printing and assembly in house here in our workshops in London and we're just yeah, so happy with how it's come out. The watch is produced in an edition of 750 pieces, which is sort of to numerically link it to the 75th anniversary. For the whole of June, we're doing a special transformation of our Neal Street store. So, we've got the red and black of Dennis's jumper in the the panels in the store and we've got the big vinyl of him on the the window and just one of the Beano watches framed in our window display. On Saturday, June the 6th, we're doing a special event in store where Nigel Parkinson, who is the artist who draws Dennis, is going to be in store drawing caricatures of people in a Beano style.

[00:04:55]As an example, this is one that he did of Stanley and me.

[00:05:00]So, Nigel will be there all all afternoon. He'll be signing boxes, he'll be doing the caricatures. If that's something you're interested in, then make sure you're signed up to our mailing list cuz we'll be sending out all the details of that in the next week or so.

[00:05:15]There are also really nice kind of extras if you buy the watch in store.

[00:05:20]So, there's a special Mr Jones Watches Beano tote bag that we've done to celebrate the collaboration along with the t-shirt that I'm wearing. There's There's actually two different designs of t-shirt. There's another one just in the background that you can see there.

[00:05:36]Um so, all of that stuff is in the Neal Street store and it's for the whole of June or I guess as long as stocks last of the t-shirts and stuff.

[00:05:52]>> Okay, that's all for this week. As always, I hope it was interesting.

[00:05:56]I hope to see as many of you as possible at the event on June the 6th. If you're not able to make it, then I'll look forward to seeing you next week here on YouTube.