While updating the “Casino Royale” Limited page earlier today, I noted that that watch, new from an Authorized Dealer, was priced in 2006 at $3,650 (MSRP).

In case you forgot to ask— the standard (read, ‘not Limited Series’) Omega Planet Ocean, in either size, runs $3,300 (MSRP) on the rubber strap …. So we’re talking about a $350 premium for the James Bond 007 Casino Royale watch affiliation ….

The “Casino Royale” differed from its screen-correct, available-to-consumer counterpart in that it had the “007” logo for second-hand counter-weight, unique casebook markings, and paperwork. My personal Limited is on long-term loan to the National Watch & Clock Museum [1] for display as part of its “Wristwatch Gallery.” My own 2900.50.91 is here with me, locked away until retrieved for occasional wrist-time.

Fast forward to present day and I’ll recall that I purchased about a month ago a replacement NATO with “007” logo that is identical to what was originally issued with the Omega Heritage SPECTRE. The MSRP on that was around $300, as compared to $180 for an apparently identical weave, in 21mm, with stainless steel hardware — but without any sort of “James Bond” indicia.

Comparing “parts” to “watches,” now something like seventeen years apart, the math works out to a 67% premium today, versus almost 11% in January of 2007.

It gets a little trickier to come up with an apples-to-apples for the current Omega No Time to Die Seamaster on its mesh bracelet [2]. But after working the numbers with a few colleagues now, I’m pretty comfortable in thinking that a “James Bond” affiliation comes in at a premium of between 42% and 45% for Omega wristwatch purchases.

Those are very impressive numbers for any brand partnership. But between a “relic of the Cold War” [2] and a “luxury Swiss watch” market that keeps “falling” [3]? By any metric, I call that outstanding.

OFF-SITE REFERENCES

  1. National Watch & Clock Museum (accessed January 6, 2024).
  2. “Seamaster Diver 300m, 42 mm, Titanium on Titanium: Reference 210.90.42.20.01.001,” Omega (accessed January 6, 2024).
  3. “Disney’s Harsh New Reality: Costly Film Flops, Creative Struggles and a Shrinking Global Box Office” (July 5, 2023) Brent Lang and Rebecca Rubin, Variety (accessed January 6, 2024).
  4. “Time to buy? Why the prices of Rolex and other Swiss watches keep falling” (December 8, 2023) Pras Subramanian, yahoo!finance (accessed January 6, 2024).