BRAND LOYALTIES
  • Who were the most apparently brand-loyal James Bond actors (on screen)?

George Lazenby with Rolex, Pierce Brosnan with Omega, and Daniel Craig  with Omega, tied for honors on this question. Daniel Craig may have edged out the lead, having exclusively worn models from watchmaker Omega over the course of five movies, spanning some fifteen years. On the other hand, Pierce Brosnan deserves props for having worn the exact same Seamaster model in his last three outings — which, at that, differed only slightly in look from the quartz model he wore in GoldenEye.

CUBBY BROCCOLI
  • “When Rolex declined to provide a timepiece for the filmmakers and …

… the budget precluded the producers from purchasing one, Cubby Broccoli pulled the one off his wrist and tossed it to a member of the art department [1].

The autobiography of Albert R Broccoli [2] contained no reference whatsoever to the reported “tossed” Rolex story. In fact, it never mentioned watchmaker Rolex at all, in any way, shape, or form.

EXCISED BRAND NAME
  • Brand name “Rolex” was resected from one Live and Let Die first edition

The hardbound first edition of Live and Let Die, was published on April 5, 1954. And in Chapter XIX, on page 204, author Ian Fleming intentionally wrote: “He looked at the Rolex on his wrist.” That’s how it read as well on page 111 of his original manuscript, straight off the typewriter without trace of subsequent edit.

But that is not how it read in the “Complete Book-Length Novel” published in the May 1954 issue of Bluebook [3]. There, in Chapter 17 (sic), its page 119 read: “He looked at the watch on his wrist” (emphasis added).

GADGET WATCHES
  • The only literary gadget watch was not supplied by Q-Branch

 

  • The first physically-modified gadget watch appeared in the movie Live and Let Die

Prior to the Rolex Submariner that performed as a “Hyper-Intensified Magnet,” gadget-watch effects were created in post-production with wristwatches which were not otherwise modified for purpose. In Live and Let Die, a small hole was made in the expandable bracelet on a reference 5513, and that modification was “used to attach an invisible wire to unzip Miss Caruso’s dress …” [4].

The Breitling “Geiger Counter” was not so much the modification of a Top Time model as it was the complete fitting of that complete, unaltered watch case into a custom housing [5] — akin to enclosing an Apple Watch in an exoskeleton [6].

  • The first undisclosed gadget watch function appeared in the movie Live and Let Die

The “buzz-saw” operation on the Rolex Submariner was not revealed until it was used to cut binding ropes with which Bond and Solitaire were held above a shark pool late in this motion picture

RELATED PAGES

— Dell Deaton
Updated: April 20, 2024
December 29, 2023

REFERENCES (off-site)
  1. James Bond: The Legacy
    2002 / John Cork and Bruce Scivally / Harry N Abrams: New York (page 36)
  2. When the Snow Melts: The Autobiography of Cubby Broccoli
    1998 / Albert R Broccoli, with Donald Zec / Boxtree: London
  3. “Live and Let Die”
    May 1954 / Ian Fleming / Bluebook, pages 88-128 (McCall Corporation).
  4. “Live Auction 1383 Important Watches: Live and Let Die”
    November 14, 2011 / Christie’s (accessed March 27, 2024)
  5. “Live Auction 9467 Pop Culture: Thunderball, 1965”
    June 26, 2013
  6. “Do you really need a case for your Apple Watch?!! | Screen Protector & Cover Review”
    June 4, 2023 / Ronan Hutchinson (via YouTube, accessed April 19, 2024)