SPOILER ALERT!

Gruen 510 Precision [9/12/3 starburst]

Made by Gruen Watch Company, early to mid-1950s [1]

The James Bond watch configuration was housed in a gold-plated, stainless steel case and always worn on a black, woven aftermarket fabric strap (somewhat under-sided for its lugs). The dial identified this as a “Precision” model, and showed full Arabic numerals at 9, 12, and 3 o’clock positions, and a partial at the 6 o’clock, against a starburst pattern radiating from its center. Further reference to its caliber 510 mechanical movement [2-3] helped bring attention to its subsidiary-seconds layout.

For best identification, additionally see link to “Exclusive Images,” below.

James Bond’s Watch

This timekeeper had a 17-jewel movement, housed “in a 34-millemeter, gold-filled case [4].

Lugs are straight and pronounced, extending well-over half-a-centimeter out from the side (contact-to-tip), with approximately 17 millimeters between each pair. The bezel is a scant millimeter or so wide, giving the white dial (just shy of appearing pearlescent) a strong, classic presence.

Gold-colored hour- and minute-hands are alpha-style, with shallow angling, minute-hand ending a bit short of where dial is covered by bezel, hour-hand extending a few millimeters less-far, but clearly differentiated from the minutes. This Gruen has tallish, narrowly-proportioned, full-Arabic numbers applied at the 12-, 3-, and 9-o’clock positions; all that is given of the number ‘6’ is its closed bottom portion, the top cut-off by large, slightly recessed sub-seconds dial. All other hours are referenced by angled stick-markers. Other than the further additions of writing that show ‘Gruen’ as watchmaker and ‘Precision’ as model, the dial is quite straightforward ….

In terms of thickness, the James Bond Gruen can’t be more than 8 millimeters from caseback to apogee of its slightly-domed plastic crystal, featuring rounded edges ….

… the Dr No dress watch is worn on a single-piece, slightly-undersized 16mm black strap …. The Gruen James Bond watch strap is fabric, all one color, but with an interesting weave-pattern that is tighter along its center, more coarse along the outer 2- to 3mm edges on each side. Metal buckle matched to watch case.

No screen-worn Gruen is known to have survived to the present.

As Seen in the Movies

Worn on-screen by Sean Connery as Agent 007, in six EON Productions motion pictures.

  • 1962/ Dr No  — See casino sequence when “Bond, James Bond” was said for the first time.
  • 1963/ From Russia with Love [5]
  • 1964/ Goldfinger
  • 1965/ Thunderball — See briefing at MI6 where every Double-0 in Europe appeared.
  • 1967/ You Only Live Twice [6]
  • 1971/ Diamonds Are Forever — See elevator fight with Peter Franks.

Manufacture

Gruen produced a series of movements within this family, beginning with the caliber 510 itself, said to have been launched in 1950 [7]. They were commonly used in “Diplomat” models, but there were any number of Precision models that were not consistent with what appeared on-screen in the EON Productions films.

The James Bond Gruen was most likely produced in 1953 [8].

Scrutiny

In its May/June 2014 issue of Watch & Clock Bulletin, the NAWCC [9] ran one of the first post-discovery images of a Gruen Precision identical to the first movie-Bond watch [10]. That same month, Wrist Watch magazine was the first print publication to run news of the Gruen discovery, as part of a comprehensive feature article dedicated to 007 timepieces [11-12]; at that time, Gruen had only been confirmed to have appeared in four EON Productions films.

By October of the following year, British GQ matter-of-factly referenced the Submariner under that context: “Besides his Gruen dress watch, Sean Connery’s 007 is best known for sporting a Rolex … [13].

James Bond Watches has displayed a fully screen-correct 007 Gruen Precision at the National Watch & Clock Museum [14] twice, for extended periods and accessible to visitors for viewing as part of regular paid admission. The first, “By the Books, with Two Original James Bond Watches,” opened shortly after discovery was announced, running December 19, 2013 through May 24, 2015. The second time was within the “James Bond Originals” kiosk, November 18, 2017 through February 22, 2024.

Insights

In my earliest discussion of what had gone into making this identification, I observed that “Sean Connery’s formal wardrobe for this movie was tailored during pre-production in order to accommodate his Gruen dress watch, as opposed to the Rolex Submariner” [15].

I also noted having obtained “an original photograph of Albert R Broccoli dated to the late-1950s [in which he] can be clearly seen wearing a watch highly consistent with all that I had available for on-screen images of the Dr No dress watch” [16]. If true, this would be characteristic of a longer-term personal interest that Cubby Broccoli appeared to have had in wearing certain James Bond watches on his own wrist, eg, as on the dustcover of autobiography, where he was shown wearing a Live and Let Die Pulsar [17].

James Bond Watches Blog™

— Dell Deaton
Updated: January 3, 2025
December 16, 2013

off-site

Exclusive Images

Other Visual Media

References

  1. Gruen: The 1950’s / 2013 / Mike & Shari Barnett (pages 161-202, and Indices – 12, 13, and 14; Second Hand Press: North Carolina).
  2. “Gruen 510” / January 28, 2024 / Ronald Ranfft (source of original database) / Precision in Every Tick (accessed July 13, 2024).
  3. “Gruen Precision, 510 (James Bond Watch)” / Peter Schill / gruen.watch (accessed July 17, 2024).
  4. “New James Bond watch exhibit pre-opens for Christmas” / December 23, 2013 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed July 15, 2024).
  5. “From Russia with Love (film) ….” / December 29, 2008 / Watches— James Bond Watches (via Internet Archive, accessed January 3, 2025).
  6. “EON James Bond watch in ‘You Only Live Twice’ (1967) ….” / December 9, 2008 / Watches— James Bond Watches (via Internet Archive, accessed January 3, 2025).
  7. “Gruen 510.”
  8. “Gruen: The 1950’s.”
  9. NAWCC: National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors (accessed July 17, 2024).
  10. “Watch & Clock Bulletin overviews 2014 James Bond watch exhibit” / May 18, 2014 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed July 15, 2024).
  11. “‘The Time When James Bond Did Not Wear a Wristwatch,’ part 1” / October 23, 2015.
  12. “‘The Time When James Bond Did Not Wear a Wristwatch,’ part 2” / October 24, 2015.
  13. “British GQ article highlights our Gruen James Bond watch research” / October 21, 2015.
  14. National Watch & Clock Museum (accessed January 8, 2024).
  15. “Gruen made James Bond’s first movie wristwatch (Part 1 of 3)” / December 16, 2013 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed July 15, 2024).
  16. “Gruen made James Bond’s first movie wristwatch (Part 2 of 3)” / December 18, 2013.
  17. When the Snow Melts: The Autobiography of Cubby Broccoli / 1998 / Albert R Broccoli with Donald Zec (Boxtree: London).

© 2025 – 2005 Dell Deaton, All Rights Reserved. USA

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