“Alpha …”
At some point in almost any circumstance where my expertise in “James Bond watches” is relied upon, I’m asked where all this started for me.
If I had only known back in that turn-of-the-decade timeframe where 1960s waned as 1970s waxed, I would now have notes to consult.
Horology came first, as I said in an interview during the run of my first Bond Watches gallery setup at the National Watch & Clock Museum [1]. I credited my Papa Deaton (Dad’s father), “who infected me with his fascination with timekeeping, clocks, and wristwatches.
To him it was fundamentally about accuracy, technologies that increased precision and reliability ….
Everybody seemed to be trying to create an absolute dead-on timekeeper in those days. Then along came the ‘quartz revolution’ …. To my grandfather, that was the end of the story.
The “James Bond” part ran concurrently, but distinctly separate — through what Ian Fleming had written, at first. Although quite tame by the standards of today, his “thrillers” had a reputation for being risqué, thus verboten. With the mind of a young man at the time, I could not have imagined a higher recommendation for reading material.
Decades later, Meehna Goldsmith asked me to connect the dots in her own interview for a Christie’s publication [2]. I did my best to oblige.
Those two worlds came together in the 1973 movie Live and Let Die, when Roger Moore made his LED digital wristwatch light up with bright red digits by pressing a button. The fact that all this took place while James Bond was in bed with an attractively curvaceous foreign agent — well, that simply added all the more appeal.
Not terribly long after, the Pulsar P2 became one of the first James Bond watches that I came to own, albeit acquired second-hand (if not second-second-hand!); it was no doubt deeply discounted by a frustrated prior owner with a growing list of user experience issues.
I’ve credited Papa with having sourced it for me, but only to the extent that my father had more likely sourced it for him. Dad was certainly responsible for getting the first brand new Bond watch on my wrist: A Seiko Quartz LC Memory-Bank Calendar à la Moonraker. He was deep into tech, having led the team that pioneered “smooth, glass, solid-state control” panels and displays for the Frigidaire Division of General Motors [3].
Hence, he could get things — then could and did keep them working for me.
Formal Study; Collaborations
Fall of 1981, I entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, with an eye toward concentration in communications. Tim Johnson, my best friend from high school, roomed with me in the dorms, and his commitment to following a business curriculum checked my trajectory. I expanded my coursework to study marketing, went on to graduate, and subsequently enjoyed a career with work in advertising and exhibition development [4] that, as it turned out, regularly overlapped (and subsidized) my James Bond watch interests.
I acutely remember studying literal reams of magazines for their earned and paid content. I carefully cut advertisements with X-Acto® knives and began “collecting” everything that appeared for Rolex and Seiko.
Sean Connery and Roger Moore were both considered current in the lead-role back at that time, and it was more common than not to find students interested in that among expanding cadres of classmates and campus friends. At one point it seemed a twofer to analyze Seiko product placement advertising for course credit, and at the same time finally unearth the LC Quartz model number that I needed to add that 007 reference from The Spy Who Loved Me to my nascent “collection.” Better still, the then-quite-advanced bulletin board system [5] at UofM allowed our collaborations to efficiently and economically reach west to California and east, across The Pond, to London.
On the home front, Dad had our back, with an unheard-of Laser Videodisc system setup in his enviable home theater where EON Productions releases [6] could be projected onto a precision-curved eight-foot screen. (His commitment to having that state-of-the-art extended to at one point removing a large section of his living room floor in order to lower it through wholly as one complete assembly.)
Unfortunately, the most important revelation that came through those lustrous, paused images were views of a wristwatch that was obviously not the model FB001 nor DW001 depicted in callouts on the dominant Seiko promotional poster for The Spy Who Loved Me. Similar findings were repeated upon scrutiny of the blue-bannered amalgamation that claimed “James Bond Wears Seiko in Moonraker,” versus Videodisc freeze-frames.
These were tough advertising calls at the time precisely because the products were so new and changing so fast from 1977 to 1985, driving and driven by the “Quartz Revolution.” Ironically, the raison d’être for Seiko UK investment in the James Bond films was to build awareness and imply mainstream preference, in order to sell more of its wristwatches.
They had to promote the correct model numbers to do that.
Business and (Personal) Acquisitions
Timothy Dalton was the active Agent 007 a half-dozen years after launch of my own first enterprise, when finances for that business were solidly in the black. I marked the milestone by purchasing my first then-current James Bond watch from a Rolex Authorized Dealer. In those days, “with papers” literally meant physical paper.
Additionally, one of the perks of working with advertising agencies and production companies that early in my career was access to professional video suites. Though too-casually dismissed as crude by the standards of today, I experienced this as yet another quantum leap in my ability to spec exact wristwatch models that had appeared in James Bond motion pictures. Good enough, in fact, that I was sufficiently satisfied with what those edit-suite monitors showed to invest in the purchase of a believed screen-correct quartz-analogue Seiko Chronograph. I wore it when visiting film locations in San Francisco for a project not much later.
And a couple of decades after that, Mark Mills of Seiko UK confirmed my call.
I also began building my own “James Bond watches” reference library. Two of my earliest books included The James Bond Films, by Steven Jay Rubin [7]; and, Revolution in Time, by David S. Landes [8]. Both to this day enjoy premium space on a bookcase in my office.
Google was still a decade away at that point, and eBay had yet to launch. So one did not simply happen upon awareness of such categories of material; I certainly did not. Luck of the draw was frequently needed to locate and acquire almost anything once heard-of. I had that with proximity to used book stores in Ann Arbor and Detroit, along with what I could see through frequent travel to Chicago — although, once in, stacks organization ran the spectrum of what’s imaginable. Sellers came out for shows, too, and those troves would frequently bear the best fruits, when scheduled. The ante of travel costs would add to the already burdensome time consuming nature of this avocation.
And only at that point, under scrutiny, did critical reading begin, in order to cull values such as The James Bond Dossier [9] from among the dozen or more also-rans from a mixed box. On occasion I rather like to fancy this akin to all the background information that’s provided to readers in “Berlin Escape” [10] in terms of what goes into operating as James Bond.
Entering the world of alternative and first-first editions of the Ian Fleming thrillers was more straightforward, but no less incredible.
For example, I knew that Live and Let Die had been published in hardcover with twenty-three chapters on April 5, 1954. But I did not know that this adventure was published as a “Complete Book-Length Novel” in the May 1954 issue of Bluebook [11], the very next month. Neither did I understand “Complete” to mean allowances for significant abridgment, starting with omission of the opening paragraph for Chapter I and on to bigger cuts in the pages immediately following. Closer to the heart of this James Bond Watches website, we’re all familiar with the following line from Chapter XIX in the book.
He looked at the Rolex on his wrist. It was three minutes past eleven o’clock.
In the corresponding Bluebook passage, on page 119, that watchmaker brand name had been excised.
With the arrival of the 1990s, I was able to advance on this front through purchase of my first On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: Uncorrected Proof [12]. This undoubtedly ranks among grail texts for James Bond horology. Despite having made “James Bond’s choice” of a Submariner the choice for my wrist well, however, I never thought that was the Rolex that Ian Fleming had in mind for Sir Hilary Bray. To the extent that I’d made any effort at all to visualize that wristwatch, I suppose it would have been something consistent with the noncommittal Oyster Perpetual photograph that Henry Chancellor used more than a decade later in his truly outstanding James Bond: The Man and His World [13].
Much to my chagrin, it never occurred to me at the time that the 1963 proof might in any way differ from final publication and the text which had become so familiar to me over the course of more or less two decades. Another decade-plus would pass before I did that.
And, boy! had I been missing out—.
Déjà Vu
For those who didn’t experience it real-time, I’m not sure it’s possible to convey what it was like to go through the machinated hiatus that characterized the period between the 1989 Licence to Kill release by EON Productions, and its successor GoldenEye in 1995.
As an experienced businessman, and, more particularly, a career marketing professional, I believe that knee-jerk criticism of “product placement” is ill-informed [14]. An unheard of six years had by then passed since the last James Bond movie, and Timothy Dalton would not be returning to the role. Legendary producer Albert R Broccoli, who had shepherded every film since Dr No to the big screen, was in failing health. The Berlin Wall had fallen (and “Checkpoint Charlie” had been transformed into a tourist attraction by the time of my latest visit to Germany a few years after).
The notion that franchise viability might be in question was not only reasonable, but appeared to have been a matter that the producers themselves felt in need of being acknowledged. I point to the following bit from M, in GoldenEye.
… I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms are wasted on me — but obviously appeal to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.
BMW and Parker and Omega, and, in a phrase, product placement, stepped-up to do their bit in keeping it around, then helping it thrive. I don’t know which, if any of their competitors were asked to step-up, nor, for that matter, if any had done so on their own. What I did know was that Omega had stepped-up.
As for me, I was immediately onboard to add a blue dial, blue bezel Omega James Bond watch to my wrist.
Seemingly as sign of encouragement, I saw print advertising in a golf magazine to which a colleague was subscribed, with copy pointing straight to the “Omega Selected by James Bond” [15]. A local ad club showed a television commercial as well: It featured dial-macro video in connection with Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye [16] to tell the same story.
Unfortunately, the story that they were all telling was wrong. Those ads promoted the reference 2531.80 Seamaster 300m, which, while it would become a James Bond watch in 1997 with Tomorrow Never Dies, was not a James Bond wristwatch at the time these promotions were run. Though not as egregious as what I had gone through with Seiko, it was just as off.
And just like that, I was back to being “the James Bond watch researcher.” Yet again.
If my path to purchase is in any way representative, the biggest cost of having misidentified that watch would have come in lost sales for Omega. I made three different outings to three separate Authorized Dealers with cash literally in my pocket, planning to purchase my first GoldenEye Omega. Inability to get a clear, confident answer from any sales person at any of those places, which happened to be in the Washington DC area, saw me depart all of them not a penny lighter.
I ended up buying back home here in Michigan not long after. In 2015, that exact same watch was still important enough to appear in the context of a vintage Aston Martin DB5 on the front cover of the Journal of the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors Watch & Clock Bulletin [17]. And anyone who’s a reader of Antique Week [18] would have seen it there on page 1, three years later still, before the headlights of a model BMW Z3 convertible.
In 2022, Omega issued a watch in ostensible commemoration of that venerable quartz, at least in part. In my opinion, either their 2017 “Commander’s” or 2019 “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” limited would be more apropos to this claim, in terms of function and spirit.
“… to jamesbondwatches.com”
With Daniel Craig put-in to replace Pierce Brosnan and a highly vocalized plan to reboot the franchise, I predicted a significant change in character for the 2006 Casino Royale James Bond watch. And with Omega so heavily leveraged into its nascent rollout of coaxial tech, that was all but certainly a baseline consideration.
With an eye on identifying whatever was to come of it (if not making my own, personal next purchase), I dabbled in online forum participation for a while. But it was never a good fit for me. I don’t even look in on mainstream social media of today more than a handful of times per year; oftentimes, less. Maybe I’d underestimated the value of CRT interfaces and data transfer speed limitations via telephone lines as “moderating” influences in the BBS approaches that I’d seen work so well for James Bond watch ID collaboration back in the 1980s.
Those were the heydays of James Bond watch research.
In the main, “complete” lists of James Bond watches appeared with CompuServe [19], et al, then [20], as now. But, like today, they were not what I believe was needed, nor how I would approach the foundational areas of original research, scrutiny of source credibility, and scope of presentation.
Watchmakers themselves, too, were suffering through terra incognito as they launched “pages on the Worldwide Web,” struggled to establish proper boundaries viz sales channels, and white-knuckled update routines that required both accelerated turnaround schedules and bulletproof accuracy.
I came to have direct interactions with Omega and Swatch Group at their rather highest levels as it related to accuracy in matters of James Bond watches. These were not the sort of blunt dialogues that led to invitations for new product introduction events (“Quite the opposite, in fact”). But the proof is in the pudding for all websites involved in terms of the benefit those exchanges continue to mean for James Bond watch consumers. And I must say that, later, all of our necessary interactions were positive throughout development of the first James Bond watch gallery opening at the National Watch & Clock Museum in 2010.
Then-Museum Director Noel Poirier deserves high praise for his part in that as well — along with so many other everythings that went into establishing a fourteen-year home for James Bond watches there in Columbia, Pennsylvania.
“JamesBondWatches.com” first lived under the “Bond 21” section on one of my personal blogs in 2005 [21]. It was an admittedly loose fitting structure at the start, prioritized “last in, first out.” I went on to register this URL on November 16, in the following year.
And with that, here we are.
Related Page
- James Bond Watches Blog: “Dell Deaton“
— Dell Deaton
Latest update: December 7, 2024
Published: April 12, 2013
off-site
References
- National Watch & Clock Museum (accessed January 5, 2024).
- “Interview: In Conversation with James Bond Watches Expert Dell Deaton Part 1/6 – How Did the Love Affair Begin?” / July 16, 2012 / Meehna Goldsmith, Longitude: Christie’s blog for collecting watches (via Internet Archive, accessed December 31, 2023).
- “Smooth-top white ceramic cooktops started showing up in kitchens in the 60s & 70s: Introducing the first Touch-N-Cook Range in history. (1973)” / January 3, 2019 / Click Americana (accessed December 31, 2023).
- “Exhibition Experiences” / February 1, 2017 / delldeaton.com (accessed December 31, 2023).
- “The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong” / May 17, 2022 / Kevin Driscoll, Wired (accessed December 31, 2023).
- “Laserdisc Collection Pt 16: James Bond 1962-1977” / November 14, 2018 / Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader (via YouTube, accessed December 31, 2023).
- The James Bond Films: A Behind-the-Scenes History, Including Octopussy & Never Say Never Again / 1981, 1983 / Steven Jay Rubin (Arlington House, Inc: New York).
- Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World / 1983 / David S Landes (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts).
- The James Bond Dossier / 1965 / Kingsley Amis (Jonathan Cape: London).
- “Berlin Escape” / June 1962 / Ian Fleming / Argosy (pages 22-24, 95-100; Popular Publications: Dayton, Ohio).
- “Live and Let Die” / May 1954 / Ian Fleming / Bluebook (pages 88-128; McCall Corporation: Dayton, Ohio).
- “Uncorrected Proofs: A Collecting Opportunity” / March 23, 2020 / Jim Hier, First Edition Rare Books (accessed January 3, 2024).
- James Bond: The Man and His World / 2005 / Henry Chancellor (page 68; Ian Fleming Publications: London).
- “What Is Product Placement? Learn The Types of Placement Options For Your Brand” / January 29, 2017 / Hollywood Branded (via YouTube, accessed January 3, 2024).
- “1990s UK Omega Magazine Advert” / Alamy (accessed January 3, 2024).
- “GoldenEye Omega Commercial (with Pierce Brosnan) 1995” / October 15, 2015 / John – 007 Files (via YouTube, accessed January 3, 2024); and, “Pierce Brosnan GoldenEye Omega Watch Commercial” / March 12, 2018 / Williarob (via Vimeo, accessed January 3, 2024).
- Watch & Clock Bulletin / September, October 2015 / Dell Deaton (National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors: Columbia, Pennsylvania).
- “Antique Week covers James Bond watch collecting” / January 14, 2018 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed January 4, 2024).
- “45 years ago CompuServe connected the world before the World Wide Web” / September 24, 2024 / Michael De Bonis / WOSU (accessed November 12, 2024)
- “‘Complete list’ of James Bond watches, by James Dowling (1998)” / December 29, 2009 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed January 3, 2024).
- “Bond 21” (February 8, 2006) delldeaton.com (via Internet Archive, accessed January 4, 2024).