- Omega
- “Seamaster Professional Chronometer 300m/1000ft” in 316L stainless steel, on matched OEM bracelet
- Reference 2531.80 [1]; Caliber 1120 [2]
- alts 2531.80.00, 25318000
- Authority: Omega [3]
IDENTIFICATION
Introduced in 1993 as part of the Omega “International collection,” and discontinued in 2006 [4].
Reference 2531.80 had a case diameter of 41.5mm, lug with of 20mm, and a “total product weight” of approximately 165g. Its dial featured a “wave dial” pattern, under a domed, anti-reflective, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. This wristwatch was self-winding with a power reserve of 44 hours, and water resistant to 300 meters (1000 feet).
All known screen-worn issues were fitted with caliber 1120 and used Super LumiNova [5]. However, early models were run by caliber 1109 movements [6] and relied upon tritium for illumination.
Trivia: The bracelet on this watch has come to be commonly known and referred to as “The Bond Bracelet.” It is also the same bracelet that came with and appeared on-screen as part of reference 2541.80 and 2220.80 James Bond watch models.
AS SEEN IN THE MOVIES
Worn on-screen by Pierce Brosnan as Agent 007 in EON Productions motion pictures Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999), and Die Another Day (2002). Specific screen-worn wristwatches have been identified through the following means.
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Serial number 60160667 [7], sold on April 15, 2007 [8]
- The World Is Not Enough
- Undisclosed serial number, sold for £9,400 on December 17, 2002 [9]
- Serial number 60341865, sold for £50,250 on November 17, 2021 [10]
Trivia: When Q issued the Seamaster 300m to 007 in Die Another Day, he referred to as “your twentieth, I believe.” Die Another Day was the twentieth James Bond movie made by EON Productions.
"GADGET WATCHES"
- 1997/ Detachable Glass-Breaker and Wireless Trigger
Tomorrow Never Dies
James Bond boarded the Carver Media Group stealth with a gadget watch capable of remotely activating a miniature glass-breaker [11-12] stored behind its dial. The glass-breaker component was accessed by pulling out the helium release valve to which it was fitted. In the movie, 007 then taped it to the outside of a glass canning jar — with its button-sized battery and red blinking activation light showing. Later, he activated the remote trigger signal on his watch case by manipulating its bezel; twelve blue lights quickly flashed two patterns before firing the glass-breaker located some distance away.
This made for a device that was both credible and clever. Rather than imply a brute force explosive store (à la Seiko Memory-Bank Calendar from Moonraker), a functional glass-breaker could well have been secreted into this Omega Seamaster. The destructive power would come from the grenade sans safety pin, with lever held to body by the glass jar into which it had been placed. Moreover, this arrangement occurred on-the-fly.
The hero prop watch shown in closeup during the film was non-functional and displayed that time at 10:40:00 throughout. Its dial was physically modified with holes bored in the outer minute-track of the dial next to each hour-marker, with lighting fitted and controlled from behind.
Trivia: Michael G Wilson has credited Pierce Brosnan for the concept behind this gadget [13].
This idea came from Pierce himself. He said he was in a bar once, in South Africa, years ago, and some guy came in — a soldier came in — and he couldn’t get a drink at the bar. So he put a live hand grenade like that into a glass. Took out his bayonet and started tapping the glass. Cleared the bar out.
He said, ‘I think we ought to try to use that.’ And now it’s something: A little remote control device shatters the glass, and the hand grenade, … with the pin out, the hammer comes out, and off it goes.
Trivia: This was the only James Bond gadget watch to appear in a motion picture that was not provided by Q-Branch (as of No Time To Die, released in 2021).
- 1999/ Lanturn
The World Is Not Enough
When James Bond and Elektra King were checking survey lines on skis in a mountainous region of Azerbaijan, an airborne collision between two attacking parahawks caused a surface collapse that left them buried in snow. A inflating cocoon that issued from that coat provided from Q-Branch created a protective air pocket and a degree of mobility for the two of them. His Omega Seamaster provided illumination — by way of twenty-three mini-lites that shown from its dial, activated by movement of the diver bezel.
The hero prop watch shown in close-up during the film was non-functional and displayed the time at 1:24:29 throughout. Its dial was physically modified with twelve holes bored in the outer minute track and another eleven along a semi-circle slightly larger than the reach of the hour-hand, not extending into the area of the dial where four lines of text appeared just above the six o’clock position.
- 1999/ Piton with High-Tensile Wire
The World Is Not Enough
In the depths of a nuclear test site in Kazakhstan, 007 removed his watch to deploy its repelling cord for means of rapidly getting from one level of that facility to the next in pursuit of Victor Zokas (the international terrorist “Renard”). A light counter-clockwise turn of its bezel deployed a piton. That was then fired at a targeted overhead rail track when the winding crown was pressed. High-tensile wire was drawn out, trailing the projectile, as the bezel whirled in a clockwise direction. Bond made another, unseen, move to retract the cable, which pulled him up as he held onto this Omega Seamaster.
The hero prop watch shown in close-up for the first part of this sequence displayed the time at 6:46:29 and continued to run after. It also appeared to tell time during the firing sequence, when it displayed 6:47:30 and ongoing.
Die Another Day
- 2002/ Detachable Explosives Detonator and Wireless Trigger
During the pre-title sequence, James Bond removed the helium release valve from his watch case and inserted it into a block of C4 as detonator; this piece had been modified to include a longer post and a light capable of blinking red on its top. The watch crown was depressed to confirm communication between the detonator and wristwatch, and showed its armed status. Later, a baroque turn of the diver bezel triggered the explosion. In each instance where a close-up of this Omega Seamaster 300m was shown, it appeared to be operational, telling time.
Die Another Day
- 2002/ Laser-Beam Emitter
Agent 007 used the laser-beam emitter in his watch to cut a hole through ice that covered the lake by which he would enter the faux Gusav Graves diamond mine from below. The gadget function on this Omega Seamaster was powered-on by press of its helium-release valve. Subsequent pressure on the crystal fired the laser itself, as a beam emitted from the winding crown. All gadget-function effects appear to have been created graphically during post-production.
Outside The World of James Bond, the first functional laser was created in 1960 [14].
Trivia: Both the first and last gadget-watch functions used by Pierce Brosnan as James Bond were laser-beam emitters.
SCRUTINY
Notwithstanding its bone fides, as of January 22, 2024, the “Planet Omega: James Bond” page hosted on the Omega website made no reference to the 25318000 Seamaster, nor to Pierce Brosnan as ever having played James Bond [15]. Rather, this piece was classified somewhere under its “Vintage Watches” section [16].
In the December 2008 issue of WatchTime, Omega was cited as having reported that the “blue-dialed Seamaster Diver is the best-selling model in the Seamaster collection [17].
Seamaster accounts for about one-quarter of total Omega watch sales, and the co-called ‘Bond’ Seamaster ‘ranks in Omega’s top 10 best sellers.’
An Omega mechanical reference 2531.80 Professional Chronometer went on display as the only non-quartz timekeeper in the James Bond Wore the Quartz Revolution gallery at the National Watch & Clock Museum [18], to show in juxtaposition with its 2541.80 sibling.
INSIGHTS
Proprietary “Precision-Accuracy Tracking” data dating to October of 2005 remains available for scrutiny here on James Bond Watches.
RELATED PAGES
— Dell Deaton
Updated: April 26, 2024
November 5, 2008
REFERENCES (off-site)
- “Omega – 2531.80.00: Seamaster Diver 300M Automatic 41 Stainless Steel / Blue / Bracelet / James Bond”
WatchBase: The complete online watch database (accessed January 22, 2024) - “Omega caliber 1120”
WatchBase (accessed January 20, 2024) - “2531.80.00: Seamaster – 300 (James Bond)”
1993 / Omega (accessed January 22, 2024) - “Omega expected to drop Seamaster 2531.80 model”
February 21, 2006 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed January 22, 2024) - “The Fully Luminous Dials On Pilot’s Watches Are Having A Moment”
December 28, 2024 / Bhanu Chopra / Forbes (accessed January 27, 2024) - “Omega caliber 1109”
WatchBase (accessed January 22, 2024) - Serial-Number-Decoder
(accessed January 23, 2024) - “Lot 298 – The Tomorrow Never Dies Seamaster – Actual Watch Worn by Pierce Brosnan During the Filming”
April 15, 2007 / Antiquorum: Omegamania (accessed January 23, 2024) - “Pierce Brosnan / The World Is Not Enough, 1999”
December 17, 2002 / Christie’s, Live Auction 9538: “Film and Entertainment” Lot 192 (accessed January 23, 2024) - Lot 120 – James Bond: An Omega Seamaster Professional watch worn by Pierce Brosnan for his role of James Bond in The World Is Not Enough, Eon Productions, 1999
November 17, 2021 / Bonhams, Film, Rock & Pop auction (accessed January 23, 2024). - “Mini Glass Breaker by 52magic”
China Magic (accessed April 24, 2024) - “Mini Glass Breaker”
September 12, 2014 / china magic (via YouTube, accessed April 24, 2024) - Tomorrow Never Dies: Commentary 2
1997 / Michael G Wilson / EON Productions (run time 1:39:16) - “The Evolution and History of Laser Cutting Technology”
February 24, 2023 / Omtech (accessed April 23, 2024) - “The Perfect Watch for World’s Most Beloved Spy”
Omega (accessed January 22, 2024) - “Vintage Watches”
Omega (accessed January 22, 2024) - “What Omega calls ‘the James Bond effect’”
November 5, 2008 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed January 27, 2024) - National Watch & Clock Museum
(accessed January 8, 2024)