#DMTBeautySpot #beauty

Watch Snob on James Bond Watches

The upcoming James Bond Film, entitled “No Time To Die” (the jokes, as an American friend of mine likes to say, write themselves) will be the 25th time the fictional super-spy has been inflicted upon an apparently insatiable and obviously insensate public. We have had Bond as a scowling womanizer (Sean Connery), Bond as suave womanizer (Roger Moore), Bond as an unconvincing womanizer (Timothy Dalton), Bond as a slightly less unconvincing womanizer (Pierce Brosnan) and finally, Bond as a bluntly sociopathic womanizer, in Daniel Craig’s version.

RELATED: Watch Snob Last Week: Sleek Swatches and Rolex vs. Omega

Craig’s James Bond seems to derive as much sensual pleasure, if not more, from extinguishing life as he does from going through the motions of engendering it. I am old enough to have seen all the Bond films — yes, all 25 of them — in the theatre and I will say, I felt with Craig, that we had come full circle, as his version of Bond as well as Connery’s, were the only ones you could plausibly imagine actually killing anyone. All the others seemed incapable of doing genuine harm to anything more threatening than a scolding squirrel, but that is a complaint for another day.

Throughout all this, Bond has worn a watch. Generally speaking, there have been only two types of watches in James Bond films. There have been watches which act as test-beds for technology developed by the redoubtable Q (a buzz-saw bezel Rolex, a Seiko which prints messages on tape, which seems insecure, and so on). And there have been, more to the point for watch enthusiasts, Bond’s “on-duty” watches. These have generally been either Rolex watches, Seiko watches or Omega watches — Omega began its partnership with the Bond films starting with Pierce Brosnan’s “Goldeneye,” in 1995. 

The partnership has continued with Craig and will likely continue with whomever plays the next 007. This means that for nearly a quarter-century, Omega has been the watch of choice of the cinematic James Bond. And that means, of course, that for many now in their mid-to-late 30s, Omega is the only watch that they have ever seen on Bond. 

Predictably, Omega has released a limited edition Seamaster to mark the latest Bond film early enough to tease eager fans. Equally predictably, it has been met with howls of outrage from some quarters of the self-styled enthusiast community. Probably the only thing more worn out than the Bond franchise is complaining about Omega limited editions; the company keeps making the watches because people keep buying them. 

The newest James Bond Limited Edition is (of course) a Seamaster. It has brownish-colored luminous material, Her Majesty’s Broad Arrow insignia on the dial and an anodised aluminum bezel which Omega boasts will show signs of age. (This is how far the vintage madness has come — accumulating damage is now seen as a selling point.) 

The usual objections have been raised. The world, for example, does not need another limited edition. The world needs many things, but mechanical watches are not one of them, and neither is James Bond (except perhaps insofar as fictional heroes help non-fictional drudges get through the day, which is on the whole may not be a bad thing). 

“It’s a cynical cash-grab,” you say? Of course it is a cash-grab — Omega is a luxury purveyor and all luxury is a cash-grab. It may also be other things, and I am not sufficiently a mind-reader to speak to the degree of cynicism in the minds of Omega and Swatch Group senior management. But I will say, it amuses me no end to hear people complain about a business behaving like a business.

Finally, there are those who complain that things like the pre-aged lume, the fatuous boasting that the bezel will accumulate scratches over the course of time and the use of the Broad Arrow (a symbol, in case you have spent the last twenty years, horologically speaking, hiding under a rock, of something being procured for the Armed Forces) are completely inappropriate in a watch meant to connect to Bond, who in his most recent incarnation is a man devoted to brutal expediency. This might be the most hilarious objection of all. Bond, let it be said, is a fictional character. Therefore, expectations of a limited edition which would be worn by an actual spy are not given. 

For all that, Craig’s James Bond seems in some ways more authentic than his predecessors, he remains an imaginary being. Complaining that the latest Bond limited edition is somehow inauthentic is like complaining that a My Little Pony (even Snobs have nieces) watch is unfaithful to reality. 

As usual, we find that the only conclusion it is reasonable to draw, when all is said and done, is that the brand and its “enthusiasts” deserve each other. If you want a watch authentic to real covert operations, go spend forty dollars on a G-Shock.

Send the Watch Snob your questions at editorial@askmen.com or ask a question on Instagram with the #watchsnob hashtag.

You Might Also Dig:

11 Best Watches Under $1,000 The 7 Best Pre-Owned Rolex Watches You Can Buy at Walmart 12 Best Watch Winders to Keep Your Automatic Watch on Time

DMTBeautySpot

via https://www.DMTBeautySpot.com

Watch Snob, Khareem Sudlow