Every Wednesday is Watch Wednesday at MotoringExposure, the blog for fast super cars and exotic cars. Although the watch related articles are most of the time less in-depth than the ones posted here at Fratellowatches, they are still worth reading for the intermediate and advanced watch collectors.

This week, it is all about the Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300M, also known as the James Bond watch in times of GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Casino Royale. Although the SMP in GoldenEye was a quartz movement driven watch and the Casino Royale featured the more recent Co-Axial version, these watches are basically all the same (with some minor optical differences). In Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, the Seamaster Planet Ocean was introduced as Bond’s new watch.

Nevertheless, the Seamaster Professional Chronometer Diver 300M (ref.2220.80) remains available for customers, with its wave pattern dial, skeleton hands and 9-link bracelet.

Personally, I love this watch and it was the first ‘serious’ mechanical watch (ref.2531.80) that I bought, in the year 2000 (and sold it a few years later). You can find a more in-depth review of this watch (click here), that I wrote several years ago.

Enjoy the article over at MotoringExposure! Click here for the blog post!

From the press release by NAWCC:

On September 10 2010, the National Watch and Clock Museum will unveil for the first time a complete collection of all eight James Bond wristwatch models provided by Seiko UK! These eight watches have been identified for the “Bond Watches, James Bond Watches” exhibit by Mark Mills (former Technical Support Manager with Seiko UK).  Mills was Eon Productions’ contact person at Seiko from 1977 through 1985.

Dell Deaton of JamesBondWatches.com and Guest Curator for “Bond Watches, James Bond Watches,” was given unprecedented access to documentation and Mark Mills’ personal recollections with the support of Seiko Watch Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to Deaton’s initiative here, no one had ever conducted original research with the supplier to definitively identify model numbers, correct case references, and exact configurations for timekeepers worn in the 007 films.

Image courtesy of and copyright by Dell Deaton.

Actor Roger Moore wore a Seiko 150 meter, duo-display diver’s watch, model SPW001, case H558-5000 as James Bond 007 in the Eon Productions film “A View to a Kill” (1985).

——- end of press release excerpt..

Although I don’t have anything against Seiko (on the contrary), I do think that people responsible for product placement should have done their home work a bit better and should have realised that a Seiko isn’t very Bond, James Bond at all. Same goes for Bond’s cars though. James Bond shouldn’t wear a Seiko or an Omega and shouldn’t be driving in a BMW as well. Nothing wrong with these brands or products, but it just didn’t (and still doesn’t) fit.

Although James Bond is probably perceived as one of the most stylish men around, he certainly messed up his watch in Goldfinger. In Goldfinger, he was wearing a Rolex Submariner (ref.6538 probably) on a NATO strap. On several Rolex Forums, the close-up below shows the watch with as much detail as possible:

I don’t like NATO straps at all, and find them far from stylish, but I guess that there are a lot of Rolex (and Bond) fans that do. But look at the width of the strap, it is way too small, approximately 18mm (if not any smaller). This looks plain ugly, and I can’t imagine they couldn’t find a right NATO strap for this watch in 1964.

Anyway, some of the Rolex / Bond fans are delighted by finally having such a nice close-up, so they can get a NATO strap with similar pattern. Visitor Dieter of the R-L-X forum, found one that comes close AND fits properly. I really wonder if the real fan will go for a 18mm version of this strap to attach between the 20mm lugs.

In this case, I think that Dieter is more stylish than James Bond. His vintage Rolex Submariner with the patina dial looks superb! As far as I can judge it, the original bezel is still there and looks niceley aged. However, I cannot getting used to these NATO straps.

A sporty Rolex should be on a stainless steel bracelet, any time. Also for Mr. Bond.

Related links:

http://www.jamesbondwatches.com/empire-2008-10.htm
http://www.fratellowatches.com/archives/2009/02/18/james-bond-vs-daniel-craig/
http://members.optusnet.com.au/heliosz/jamesbond.html

James Bond nowadays wears an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600m, but in the past he had all kinds of watches, among them a number of Rolex watches. The famous James Bond Rolex is of course the Submariner, although Ian Fleming wore a Rolex Explorer himself and was probably referring to this Explorer as well in his books. Dell Deaton wrote an excellent article, including some nice photographs of Ian wearing his Explorer, for the US based magazine WatchTime.

However, it seems that Daniel Craig doesn’t take this Omega sponsorship (for EON movie productions) too seriously, as he has been repeatedley spotted with Rolex watches from his personal collection. Besides his vintage Rolex Submariner 6538, identical to the one that Sean Connery wore in Goldfinger, he owns this vintage Daytona as well. It is a Rolex Daytona 6263, as Jake posted on his excellent Rolex Blogspot.

Someone over at the German R-L-X forum posted this snapshot of Daniel Craig and his vintage Daytona ref.6263.

What do you think? Should James Bond be wearing his inventor’s Explorer? Or at least a Rolex? Or just whoever sponsors him? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

Just two days ago, I received an e-mail from Dell over at www.jamesbondwatches.com telling me that he is in the progress of creating the most comprehensive list of timepieces used in EON Productions (by Albert R. Broccoli) a.k.a. the 007 movies. His website is all about timepieces in Bond movies, so you’ll find the known big brands like Rolex, Omega, Seiko, Pulsar and Breitling, but there are also a lot of ‘unknown’ watches used in these movies. If you are able to identify the unknown watches or can be more specific about some of the used timepieces, please participate!

Picture of this Omega Seamaster Professional 2531.80 by Antiquorum.com

You can find the complete list at: http://www.jamesbondwatches.com/the-list-eon-movies.htm

Enjoy!