Reply With QuoteThanks for that invaluable contribution...
Hmm...
;-)
Thanks for that invaluable contribution...
Josh B.
Really?
You could well be right. I may have got it wrong.
In point of fact, it does look far to sparkly to be a vintage watch.
You write that it is a Project X Designs SS1 Rolex. Looks like you might be right.
What led you to that conclusion (and don't just tell me that you have Superman's vision)?
I remembered reading about it here:
http://rolexblog.blogspot.co.uk/2008...n-connery.html
(in part 11 of that series but as you seem genuinely interested in the topic I've pasted the link to the start of it. its a fun read despite his over enthusiasm with the English language at times.)
Project X confirmed that it is one of theirs to Jake. And it is consistent with the photos and DCs liking for Rolex watches.)
BTW, if you've not already done so this thread is also a good read:
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...nd-Really-Wear
Last edited by Josh B; 7th November 2013 at 08:40.
Thanks for these links Josh B.
You are right, they make for a very interesting read.
Well, my estimation of DC goes up even more if he is wearing the Rolex Project X. Not because it is Rolex per se, but rather because it is even more of an homage to Sean Connery in Goldfinger and Thunderball.
The strap worn also makes sense in terms of the activity that Bond would have been engaged in. At the beginning of Goldfinger he is diving in order to carry out an attack on an installation manufacturing and storing drugs.
Today Rolex watches have extension bracelets. In those days they did not.
So the obvious choice for a diver who was going to put his watch around both a wetsuit and on his wrist under his tuxedo would a one-piece nylon strap. I like that touch.
dbt001 makes a very valid point when he comments that Fleming was very exacting in his standards concerning food, cars, cigarettes and drink but not really bothered about his hero's choice of wristwatch. In this I think that he is entirely correct. From memory I think that there is some correspondence between a reader and Fleming on this point. The correspondent is very concerned about Bond's timepiece (in the same way that Boothroyd wrote in to complain about Bond's use of the Beretta (ladies' gun)). Whilst the correspondent stated that a Rolex Submariner really had to be the only choice, Fleming explained that for Bond a watch was just a watch. Jimmy would pick up anything that was around at the time.
Maybe Fleming picked the Submariner just to make one reader happy?
So maybe,....just maybe,..... he would have worn a Swatch.
Interesting fact (possibly mythical). On the night before the Dallas shooting in 1963 both Lee Harvey Oswald and John Fitzgerald Kennedy were both reading a James Bond novel.
Indeed. Here's a long quote from this post on TRF:Originally Posted by superrupert
http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=120138
Dell Deaton has done a tremendous amount of research on which Rolex Fleming wore, and how Bond came to wear one.
This is more than speculation. In a letter he wrote four years after completing his Live and Let Die manuscript, Fleming made it clear that Rolex was not at that time James Bond’s choice for a timekeeper.
This came in response to written criticism from an astute reader. Following are excerpts from each side of their correspondence, provided to me last summer by Fleming’s stepdaughter. On April 25, 1958, a reader complained about the performance of Agent 007’s watch in Doctor No. Specifically, “Bond glanced at his watch. It had stopped at three o’clock.” Stopped! This sentence made the reader “extremely surprised and perturbed.” He considered it “a very serious matter which should at once be drawn to the attention of M [Bond’s boss’s codename],” suggesting this field failure “be made the subject of an Official Inquiry.”
The reader proposed a solution. In the future, Bond should be issued a “Rolex Oyster Perpetual, which is completely waterproof and does not require winding,” and, if anything, “keeps even better time after immersion.”
Fleming acknowledged the complaint and made his reply. “I have discussed this with [James Bond] and he points out that the Rolex Perpetual weighs about six ounces and would appreciably slow up the use of his left hand in combat.”
Then, this: “His practice, in fact, is to use fairly cheap, expendable wrist watches on expanding metal bracelets which can be slipped forward over the thumb and used in the form of a knuckle-duster, either on the outside or the inside of the hand.” If Bond’s personal watch was “cheap” and “expendable” up until 1958, it was never a Rolex.
Thanks dbt001.
Good to know that I am not going mad! That was exactly the passage of which I was thinking.
Well found.
Glad that you are enjoying this thread as much as I am.
I read 2 JB books this summer, dr no and goldfinger
my impression is bond is not much of a wis and just a bit of a hooligan with a big ego
so, I think today he'd
a yob, that's it, he's a yob with a license to kill
ok so, today, he'd wear a tag because that's what he'd have seen as being the
what's that dead actor's name..... the guy jumping a motorbike over a nazi camp, the bullit movie?
any way, it's be this
flashy and trashy
Bartender! I shall have what Mr Bubi is drinking please. Looks to be pretty strong stuff I say!
Rolex....NOT an Omega, in fact I am very sad that the Producers signed the deal with Omega,and disappointed in Omega for not respecting the historic link to Rolex, wish they would stay away from Bond and focus on their own claim to fame, the moon landing...
Well, Fleming might not have been too interested in watches, but Sir Roger Moore certainly is.
In his delightful book 'Bond on Bond', 2012, Michael O'Mara Book, (all proceeds of which go to UNICEF), Moore admits to being a gadget freak (unlike Desmond Llewelyn who was a technophobe in real life - couldn't even programme his own video recorder).
His favourite gadget was the Rolex (saw-cum-bullet-deflecting,zip unfastening magnet) as seen in the first reel of 'Live and Let Die.' I was particularly pleased about this. It was the sight of that watch that hooked me on watches forever. That and gorgeous Italian spies who want to have sex in the wardrobe.
Chapter 4 is entitled 'Bond on Gadgets.'
The last paragraph of this chapter Sir Roger writes:
'One thing that is constant is Jimmy's love of a good watch - and let's face it, it's his watch that has got him out of several nasty situations. I used to wear a Rolex all the time, and still do wear my limited-edition Submariner on occassion, but my main timepiece is a Breitling, which I used in a commercial for the Hanson Trust of Ireland. After the third and last day of filming, I asked my son Christian (who was assistant director) to take it back to the production office.
'No, keep it, it's yours,' he said. There was no way I was going to pinch a five-thousand pound watch!
'No,' he said, 'Kristina [Mrs Moore] saw you admiring it and has bought it for you.'
My wife also bought me a Piaget watch, which I use when in formal wear as it's very lightweight and thin. My wife, as well as having great taste, is also very generous.'
A cockring?
Daddel.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
Hi Daddel,
Now that is what I would call a great 'conversation stopper.'
I take my Dutch Cap off to you.
Best wishes,
Prince Albert
Thanks, I thought it would be!
Ta,
Daddel.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
An excellent choice, Sir! Monique (James' mother) was Swiss and bought Andrew (James' father) this as a wedding present.My vote would be for a vintage heirloom from his father - an old-style Blancpain Fifty Fathoms.
Always makes me laugh when people refer to James as the quintessential English spy. He's about as English as Irn Bru and Gruyere. ;-))
SGR
To be fair he did get pretty close in Casino and Quantum!
flashy and trashy
...but what do I know; I don't even like watches!
Ever since getting my 5513, I can hardly walk down the street without a gorgeous Italian spy shoving me into a cupboard.
Brilliant! I'll have a pint of whatever you ordered...
SGR
Glad to hear all you boys coming out of the closet...
Oh no, I'm staying in my closet. It's got a horny Maddy Smith in it!
Re: Bond as an Englishman.
In point of fact, little Jimmy was born at Wattenscheid, Germany. This, then, makes him about as English as our Royal Family - and you can't get more English than that.
This man wins the Internet. All of it!
SGR
But all members of the Royal Family were born in the UK, so that's rather the end of that analogy!
...but what do I know; I don't even like watches!
It's been a long time since I've read Fleming's novels but I can highly recommend the 'Alan McQueen' series by Mark Abernethy as a great contemporary spy thriller read (the protagonist, Alan 'Mac' McQueen, is a spy for Australian SIS and the plots are based around SE Asia & Australia but they're a gritty and I imagine realistic take on the genre).
http://www.spyguysandgals.com/sgShow...e=McQueen_Alan
Anyway, Mac's 'standard' watch (having been trained in paramilitary operations with the Royal Marines and SBS) is an unidentified G-Shock but in one of the earlier novels he wears an Omega diver (IIRC) as his timepiece when he's 'undercover' in his role as a bookseller for "Southern Scholastic Books" - I always imagined that it was an SMP (most likely the black-faced version) to fit in with the image of a businessman and to not to garner too much attention, but show him as still being 'successful' and a non-threat.
With that in mind, I'd imagine Bond going with a similar selection - a G-Shock for combat missions and something not too flashy and expensive but still befitting a businessman who is well travelled and earns a decent wage - perhaps an Omega 2254 or even a Rolex Sub, but I certainly think the PO 8500 is a tad too out of character for the character. If Bond really needs an analogue watch for those times when he has a need to clobber a bad guy, then perhaps he can carry a Sinn U1 in his luggage s I reckon the tegimented bracelet could put a fair dent in human skull without showing too many swirlies?!
Yeah, you are right Andrew (I was anticipating this fair point).
I was just playing on a tired joke.
Though it hides a truth.
Being English: It's a state of mind.
Ian Fleming: Born, 27, Green Street, off Park Lane. Brought up, Oxfordshire, England. Family Estate, Scotland. Education: Eton, England; Sandhurst, England; Kitzbuhel, Austria; Munich, Germany; Geneva, Switzerland.
Great-grandfather: Perth, Scotland
Grand-Father: Robert Fleming, born in Braemar, Scotland.
Father: Valentine Fleming, Dundee, Scotland.
Mother: Evelyn St. Croix Rose: of Irish, Scots and Hugenot descent. Ian Lancaster Fleming is called this because of Evelyn's believe descent from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
Ian Fleming: travelled all over the world and lived, a good part of his life, in Jamaica.
Was he English: Of course he was!
Now, where did I put that cock ring? Oh yes, that's where it is.
Based on this info I reckon he would go for a NATO IWC
Zombie thread alert!
You're a few pages too late.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
We must be getting near your favourite time of year, when you can go around telling everyone that Father Christmas is not real.
Unfortunately Father Christmas is real in our house and it's me😣
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I'm sure that 4 years later everyone's devastated.
Fictional characters can exist in both a real world, and a fictional one, or somewhere in between (such as characters like Ali G or Keith Lemon). Whether they're on a stage, in a book, or on a screen. So following logic they could wear a fictional watch, or a real one or something in between. It's entirely up to the creator.
Ha ha - So not only an utterly pointless zombie post, but wrong as well!
M
James bond is a man of taste in fine engineering. He wouldn't want a mass produced, copied, faked, overpriced Rolex.
He would want a well engineered watch produced by a British firm.
He would qualify for a Bremont MB1 without doubt and would love every moment of it.
Guess you could argue Fleming was kind of James Bond (though not quite as adventurous) worked in intelligence, did a bit of spy fieldwork, a foody, loved booze etc. Certainly a playboy with expensive tastes and a bit of a ladies man.
He prob would have also crash landed in that French farmers field (battling Jaws) and seduced the said Farmers wife whilst drinking a fine year of Dom Perignon :)
Now you're confusing Commander Bond with those fellahs that make them Bremont watches....
______
Jim.
An extra piece of historically significant fabric would definitely appeal to a man such as James Bond.
Maybe Bremont could put a bit of Moneypenny’s knicker fabric in the case?
+1
I’ll have a think about this for four years and then get back to you.
Please enlighten us, why the hell have you resurrected this thread? If you'd made a worthwhile or even mildly humorous addition it might've been justified but sadly that's not the case.
For what it's worth, the James Bond character was always associated with gadgets so I guess he'd wear a Smartwatch.
Paul
Bond will wear whatever Eon and Omega's marketing department deem appropriate.
Where do I sign?
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
I actually think in one of the recent books which presents Bond as if he's just arrived today he does indeed wear a smart watch.
Q would issue him this Bremont it would be sterile
The top pusher would push in and twist to reveal a garrote wire
the bottom pusher combined with a sub dial would act as a Geiger counter
https://www.bremont.com/watch/alt1-c/17755
Stienhart due to cuts
But the kingsman films have already jumped on that bandwagon. It’s spoofing Bond so maybe Bremont isn’t the ideal choice of course if Kingsman hasn’t already chose that brand
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It’s all open to debate and everyone has their own subjective take on what he would wear which is polarising.
I think I’ll quote Sean Connery on what he thought Fleming would say about the 007 phenomenon although it could apply here -
“You’re really going to have to ask Ian Fleming which is kind of hard Cos he’s dead”
I think if he wrote it as Rolex it should be so. I think also he would of still picked Rolex today but maybe a different model.
It’s not completely beyond the reaches of a spy agency employee and if people are theorising he could have Blancpain, Bremont then surely Rolex should be applicable
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Last edited by bond; 23rd November 2017 at 17:06.
Best answer Ever . Period ! He’ was probably waiting for the 39mm releases aswell for the more vintage vibe
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I thought Bond a dinosaur , relic of another age and time . No ,no ,no please not an smartwatch. Unforgivable.
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