• Panerai
  • Unmarked “Radiomir” in stainless steel, with “Error Proof” (more commonly referred to present day as “California”) dial [1], on a tanned, water resistant leather strap
  • Reference 3646 [2]; Rolex Cortébert Caliber 618 Typ-1 [3]
    • alts Rolex 3646, Panerai 3646
  • re Ian Fleming 1954 novel Live and Let Die
  • Authority: Dell Deaton
!! NOTICE

As of Last update to this page, no “real world” wristwatch or identification has ever been found to have been referred to or otherwise relied upon by Ian Fleming for the diver’s piece that he had in mind for that James Bond watch in Live and Let Die. What follows below under Investigation, below, then, is exclusive to James Bond Watches in terms of research, assessment, work and conclusions.

PRESENTATION

Following Rolex reference 2533 prototyping developed to support a secret Italian Navy program during the mid- to late-1930s [4], Panerai reference 3646 was in production until 1955 [5].

Reference 3646 had a cushion-style case diameter of 47mm [6], said to have been based upon a pocket watch design that had been rotated ninety-degrees with wire lugs then welded onto it for attachment of a sewn-on leather strap [7,8]. Its Rolex-patented Error Proof dial featured Arabic numbers at the four-, five-, seven-, and eight-o’clock positions; baton markers at three-, six-, and nine-o’clock; and Roman numerals at one-, two-, ten-, and eleven-o’clock — with an inverted triangle at twelve-o’clock — said to eliminate confusion in reading the time under any field condition [9-11]. It relied upon radium as a key element for illumination [12].

In 1955, second-generation company head Giuseppe Panerai gave assurance that this watch was suitable for underwater work at “up to 30 metres of depth” [13].

LITERARY IDENTIFICATION

Live and Let Die made only two references to this James Bond diver’s watch; both came after he’d embarked upon his mission to destroy the yacht used by lead bad guy Mr Big by planting underwater explosives on her hull. Chapter XIX included the following passage as Agent 007 swam up to the vessel from below [page 204].

It was the keel of the Secatur and Bond’s heart thumped in his chest.

He looked at the Rolex on his wrist. It was three minutes past eleven o’clock ….

Ninety minutes later, he was back on the surface when it was referenced for the last time. “Bond looked at his watch. It was half an hour after midnight …” [page 209].

!! INVESTIGATION

An obvious place to start with a search for the Live and Let Die diver’s watch would be with watchmaker Rolex [14,15]; and it would seem almost unimaginable that such a hunt would not also conclude within their walls as well.

But a line of inquiry focused exclusively on Rolex-model Rolexes started to loose ground with the original Live and Let Die manuscript now archived at the Lilly Library. Typed on page 111 is the name “Rolex,” meaning that it had been locked-down no later than end-of-February 1953 [16]. That was too early for it to have been a Submariner [17]; too early for any surmised “insider” disclosure by Jacques Cousteau during his 1953 “first scuba experience” with Ian Fleming — well over a month later [18-20].

Moreover, contemporary John Pearson observed of that experience: “The facts and bread-and-butter details of Cousteau’s adventure seemed to bore” Ian Fleming. The same could easily be argued regarding this “Rolex.” In fact, Mr Fleming, himself, reinforced this de minimus valuation of brand names in a 1962 advice piece titled, “How to Write a Thriller” (with parenthetical original to source) [21].

A Ranson lighter, a 4½ -litre Bentley with Amherst-Villiers super-charger (please note the solid exactitude), the Ritz Hotel in London, the 21 Club in New York, the exact names of flora and fauna, even James Bond’s Sea Island cotton shirts with short sleeves. All these small details are points de repère to comfort and reassure the reader on his journey into fantastic adventure.

With release of the book to the public in 1954, this would have had Rolex set as “just a name” in that context, according to the excerpt quoted immediately above. The burden for researchers, then, would have been (and remains) to demonstrate it as having been anything more than that.

As brands went, Rolex would have been a good choice for Live and Let Die if for no other reason than the preeminent position of public awareness as a watchmaker that it had been working to achieve since the mid-1920s [22]. A year later, “Patek Philippe” appeared to have been just as good, for its purpose (on the wrist of Hugo Drax), in Moonraker {page 46} — where Rolex wasn’t mentioned at all, despite the pivotal importance of that James Bond watch as the climax of that third novel played out {pages 236, 237, and 241}.

If not the wristwatch per se, the plot of Live and Let Die itself provided important clues about its origin and purpose. In preparation for the move against Secatur, it would have been sent to Jamaica from the Admiralty in London {pages 177, 187, and 192}. As this was not the sort of assignment that would merit access to the sort of fifteen-months-before-release technology that a Submariner would have been in February of 1952 {pages 7, 16-17, and 181}, these items would have been known to Agent 007, off-the-shelf, field tested, having been devised “during the war” — if not, in fact, World War II surplus.

That drove James Bond Watches to look at Rolex movements underpinning Panerai wristwatches [23]. Moreover, those fitted with Error Proof dials, on which neither brand nor model name appeared, readily anticipated and addressed the question of why Ian Fleming had “mistakenly” called a Panerai watch a Panerai watch, had “Panerai” been so overtly inscribed.

In 2019, independent legacy Panerai expert Jose Pereztroika addressed this history from a purely Rolex-rebranded-as-Panerai perspective [24]. Although having made no reference in any way to either James Bond or Ian Fleming, his arguments as presented are cited here in support of the Panerai-3646-as-Live-and-Let-Die-James-Bond-watch case that has been set forth by James Bond Watches on this site.

In summary, Mr Pereztroika stated that all such Panerai 3646 “watches produced in [this] series between 1936 and 1955 were made by Rolex.” This is ultimately how [son of company founder and then-presiding officer] “Giuseppe Panerai defined the watches. To Mr Panerai, they were Rolex watches” [emphasis original to quote].

And here comes the ultimate revelation. This is the original invoice for the service. [The] 3646 is referred to as l’orologio Rolex, the Rolex watch.

The Orologeria Svizzeraa invoice published in this article proves unequivocally that the watches made by Rolex for the Italian Navy were considered Rolex watches even by Giuseppe Panerai.

Ian Fleming needn’t have been some obsessive “watch guy,” nor possessed any special understanding of horology that might have led him to reference the diver’s watch in Live and Let Die by sourced caliber as opposed to ultimately credited watchmaker brand name. Rather, as a former member of the Department of Naval Intelligence in which he served during World War II, he needed only to have spoken (written) of these wristwatches in the same terms that he had heard others speak about them during his time with them [25]. It was also the sort of fact, as biographer Andrew Lycett concluded, that Ian Fleming would have “craved” [26].

Jose Pereztroika has gone a bit further than this, arguing that Rolex anonymized “markings on movements and casebacks” supplied to Panerai in the mid-1940s in order to “conceal the origins of the watches after learning that they were destined to Nazi forces stationed in Italy [27].

Rolex’s agreement with Panerai was exclusive to the Italian Navy but with Florence occupied by Nazi forces, Rolex could not stop delivery for fear of severe retaliation against their retailer Panerai. By anonymizing the watches, Rolex killed two birds with one stone. Saving the Panerai family from getting into trouble while at the same time protecting Rolex’s reputation.

Notably, then, Mr Pereztroika has on his website used the terms “Panerai 3646” and “Rolex 3646” to refer to the same series of wristwatches. As additional acknowledgment to his original work, both are noted, too, near the top of this page.

INSIGHTS

As stated above, there is no particular timekeeperb that was referenced by Ian Fleming, or perhaps even existed at all outside of his imagination, as the “Live and Let Die Rolex” diver’s watch [28-30] — at least as of the date on which this page was last updated (as indicated below).

As far as my work has been concerned, I remember being curious about this watch when I first read Live and Let Die (whenever that was). My first go at the books was in order, so I saw that “Rolex” first in the sequence, which, importantly, meant before I saw the Rolex in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It remained “in the mix,” so to speak, with so many other aspects of James Bond-affiliated horology, until I became involved with validating the Reference 1016 Explorer, proximal to the Ian Fleming Centenary [31]. Before that Rolex could be designated as “first” or “original” literally James Bond watch, I had to be satisfied that it was sufficiently unlikely that no other described piece, including this one, would later surface for title.

I made that determination in 2008. I stand by that to this day.

As for a Panerai 3646 as Live and Let Die diver’s watch, I think that’s as close as we’re ever going to get on this one.

NOTES

a Circa 1954, Orologeria Svizzera was the watch shop for Panerai at the Piazza San Giovanni in Florence.
b For textbook insight into “imagined watches,” see discussion of Girard-Perregaux associated with Donovan Grant on the first two pages of From Russia, with Love, written in 1956.

RELATED PAGES

— Dell Deaton
Updated: April 17, 2024
November 28, 2008

REFERENCES (off-site)
  1.  “California Love”
    May 27, 2016 / James Dowling / Revolution (accessed March 20, 2024).
  2. “All References (including Others)”
    watchlounge: The Panerai Reference Database (accessed March 20, 2024).
  3. “618 Typ-1” Ibid.
  4. “Pre-Submariner Scuba Diving with Rolex Oyster Watches”
    June 19, 2023 / Jose Pereztroika / Perezcope (accessed March 20, 2024).
  5. “Rolex Panerai 3646 Service Invoice from 1955”
    May 27, 2019 / Jose Pereztroika / Perezcope (accessed March 20, 2024).
  6. “Origins of the 3646 Case Construction”
    December 28, 2015 / Jose Pereztroika / Perezcope (accessed March 20, 2024).
  7. “The weak spot of the 3646”
    January 4, 2017 / Volker / Vintage Panerai (accessed March 20, 2024).
  8. “A Blown-Up Rolex-Panerai 3646 at Sotheby’s?”
    February 10, 2022 / Jose Pereztroika / Perezcope (accessed March 19, 2024).
  9. “‘California Dial’ @ Christie’s Sale 1398”
    November 1, 2013 / Volker / Vintage Panerai (accessed March 20, 2024).
  10. “Ref 3646 watches with ‘California Dials’”
    October 18, 2019 / Volker / Vintage Panerai (accessed March 20, 2024).
  11. ” Californian Controversy: The Origins Of The Term ‘California Dial’ And Why It Can Mean Two Very Different Things …”
    October 17, 2021 / Rob Nudds / Fratello (accessed March 21, 2024).
  12. “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Radium Dials, by Kathleen McGivney”
    Horological Society of New York (via YouTube, accessed March 9, 2024).
  13. “Rolex Panerai 3646 Service Invoice …” Id.
  14. “WatchTime feature article — ‘Discovered: James Bond’s Rolex,’ part 3 of 9”
    December 22, 2009 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed March 20, 2024).
  15. “WatchTime feature article — ‘Discovered: James Bond’s Rolex,’ part 4 of 9” Ibid.
  16. “Part III: James Bond-007”
    David A Randall / Lilly Library Publication Number XII: The Ian Fleming Collection of 19th-20th Century Source Material Concerning Western Civilization together with the Originals of the James Bond-007 Tales (Indiana University: Bloomington).
  17. “Submariner”
    2005 / Martin Skeet and Nick Urul / Vintage Rolex Sports Models, page 20 (Schiffer Publishing: Atglen, Pennsylvania).
  18. James Bond: The Man and His World – The Official Companion to Ian Fleming’s Creation
    2005 / Henry Chancellor, page 43 (Ian Fleming Publications: London).
  19. The Life of Ian Fleming
    1966 / John Pearson, page 205 (McGraw-Hill Book Company: New York).
  20. Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond
    1995/ Andrew Lycett, pages 241 and 246 (Turner Publishing: Atlanta).
  21. “‘How to Write a Thriller,’ by Ian Fleming, ‘Show,’ August 1962”
    January 2, 2010 / Dell Deaton / Branding Bond, James Bond (accessed March 20, 2024).
  22. “4 Moments That Changed the Watch World”
    October 12, 2020 / Victoria Gomelsky / The New York Times (accessed March 21, 2024).
  23. “1940s: Panerai for the Royal Navy, the Radiomir Ref 3646 Is Born”
    Panerai, History (accessed March 21, 2024).
  24. “Rolex Panerai 3646 Service Invoice …” Id.
  25. James Bond: The Man and His World
    Ibid, pages 27-40.
  26. Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond
    Ibid, page 438.
  27. “Rolex-Panerai 3646 ‘Error Proof’ from a Bosnian Bazaar”
    October 21, 2021 / Jose Pereztroika / Perezcope (accessed March 21, 2024).
  28. “Watchmakers”
    March 21, 2024 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches (via Internet Archive, accessed March 23, 2024).
  29. “Ian Fleming”
    March 22, 2024 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches (via Internet Archive, accessed March 23, 2024).
  30. “Panerai 3646 Pre-Radiomir”
    March 23, 2024 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches (via Internet Archive, accessed March 25, 2024).
  31. “New Exhibit Honors 007 Creator Ian Fleming”
    May 27, 2008 / Rob Gifford / NPR (accessed March 10, 2024).