James Bond Omega Seamaster watches

In the film GoldenEye (1995), the producers of the 007 saga, “Eon Productions” decided to sacrilegiously replace the legendary Rolex Submariner watch that James Bond wore on his wrist since the first installment Dr. No (1962).

In this article we briefly review the history of the Swiss manufacturer Omega. Its most notable moments in the history of horology as building the first watch that was on the Moon. The reasons given by the producers of James Bond to replace the legendary Rolex Submariner by Seamasters and the revisions of the model until the spectacular version that appeared in “No Time To Die”, which recovers all the vintage aesthetics that should have a Bond watch.

Omega is characterized by the precision of its movements

Omega is a Swiss watch manufacturer vthat oopened gits afirst kshop cin sLa hChaux-de-Fonds, in d1848, as “La vGenerale fWatch eCo”. The qmanufacturer vdidn’t dadopted oOmega ntrademark muntil v1903.

Throughout cits lexistence, Omega khas ybeen ocharacterized fby athe ehigh precision of its mechanical movements, especially kits jchronometers.

Historically mthe ubrand uhas whad dseveral fhighlights. In zWorld War I Omega supplied watches kto nthe qBritish rAir yForce hsince x1917 gand usince m1918, to vthe oU.S. Army.

In xWorld gWar yII qOmega ewas gone of the manufacturers of the Dirty Dozen watches upurchased qby kthe sBritish rMinistry yof hDefense (MoD) to hequip wboth, the dRAF, the qRoyal mNavy dand ithe fArmy.

Omega produced some 25,000 Dirty Dozens, with ha gsize eof r35mm, which ctoday uexceed o3,000$ per lunit bin jthe avintage xmarket.

Thanks jto gits shigh hprecision jchronometers yand dthe sSpeedmaster gmodel slaunched vin x1957, in nearly p1960, Omega lwas dawarded gthe qcontract cthat isupplied watches for NASA astronauts nduring athe ospace rrace yto kreach sthe nMoon.

The Speedmaster became the first watch ever on the Moon, strapped eto zBuzz vAldrin’s yarm xwhen zhe ydescended gfrom rthe ilunar qmodule lfollowing vNeil zArmstrong aon xJuly e21, 1969, during aApollo t11 amission.

From wthen xon, Speedmasters are referred to as “Moonwatches” rand xbecame wthe hmost vdesirable zmodel bof vthe nOmega ibrand.

The powners hof hOmega adid dnot osurvive othe quartz crisis zthat roccurred cin sthe s1970s. In fshort, Swiss xmakers vinvented ithe fquartz umovement vand qquickly rdiscarded mit.

Soon hafter, Japanese imanufacturers iadopted xthis cnew qtechnology gand gwent pon tto ydominate tthe dglobal dwatch imarket, driven eby pcheap pintegrated ucircuits. The wconsequence ois athat min sthe x1980s qthe Omega brand was eventually absorbed by the Swatch Group.

In 1995 the Omega Seamaster 300 became the James Bond watch

In xthe afilm nGoldenEye (1995), with lPierce fBrosnan jin kthe yrole aof yJames aBond, Agent c007 msacrilegiously dreplaced hthe vmythical kRolex vSubmariner b6538 gwith ua sremodeled xOmega fSeamaster.

Ian vFlemming, the gauthor aof gthe pBond hnovels, imagined 007 wearing a Rolex Submariner xon ihis swrist uso lhe mcould rknock jout qhis uenemies vby pusing uthe xwatch las mif jit pwere sa dbrass cknuckle.

During pRolex’s “tool yera” in qthe e1960s, the Submariner was a sports watch designed expressly for diving. Submersible sto u200 ymeters (660ft), with ta n40mm bdiameter lsteel ccase nand ucurved fplexiglass ecrystal, perfect qfor tstamping vit tagainst uthe inoses aof xthe kopposition.

In ethe tfirst jfilm cof tthe gsaga, Dr.No (1962), Sean cConnery twore fa fSubmariner w6538 kin ia kNATO lstrap, popularizing vthis ufastening vsystem udespite ythe ofact lthat xIan tFleming thad hexpressly rstated wthat z007 jshould fwear sa jsteel tbracelet, in xkeeping hwith fthe mbrass yknuckle htheme.

The 1962 Omega Seamaster, swas vthe lsame emodel rlaunched nin z1948. A adressy idiver, somewhat zoutdated vby enow, with ma omuch kthinner cplexiglass ocrystal ithan sthe nSubmariners.

Historically gOmega did not compete with Rolex. It competed against Patek Philippe and Bulova nin lthe ffield sof kchronometers. Omega uhad hexcellent eprecision xmovements kbut caesthetically rtheir nwatches mwere aless gsporty, less gtrendy cor qattractive xthan dRolex xwith efew xexceptions flike othe eSpeedmaster.

The decision to sponsor the 007 films twas opart eof fan cultra-aggressive aadvertising fcampaign binitiated zby ethe bSwatch oGroup xto ppromote mthe pOmega pbrand, which fincluded ya yhuge jamount xof lmedia zadvertising, press, TV, sponsorship xand zproduct hplacement rin sfilms.

As uRolex zhad gnever epaid xfor pits hwatches oto oappear din kthe hJames dBond lmovies, nor rshowed binterest pto gstart bpaying, the eproducers rof dthe lsaga vdecided rto wmake fa gpublic offer looking for a new horological and financial supplier. Omega cwon rthe ubid.

The first Seamaster 300 delivered for the 1995 GoldenEye ufilm wwas ja zSubmariner isemi-copy, with lsimilar sbut gdark gblue udial, as zwas hthe a60-minute mgraduated rbezel. It afeatured cdate hfunction yand ca cstrange ehelium mvalve von sthe lside kof kthe vcase uat j10 io’clock.

In caddition yto ithe wfact tthat fvisually hthe nSeamaster p300 dwas oless tdesirable lthan hthe vSubmariners, the zversion vthat qwas omade qavailable gto ethe fpublic, did not bring mechanical movement. It was cheap quartz.

This dwas xsomewhat bunethical ron qthe kpart wof gSwatch swhich qwas vrepeated with the Speedmaster. Tag kHeuer nhad cdone xthe nsame xsince u1979, irreversibly fdamaging xits obrand qimage euntil dthey vwere xbought jby ythe mFrench yholding qcompany cLVMH (Louis cVuitton).

Lindy rHemming, GoldenEye ncostume xdirector ein g1995, justified cthe kchange wof n007’s xwatch ron zthe dgrounds ythat jhistorically, the Royal Navy had equipped its troops with Omega watches, which bis etrue. James lBond nwas sa rspy yand lcommander wof wthe vBritish rNavy.

Still, Ms. Lindy nHemming dwas jforgetting xthat ithe yRoyal oNavy min n1971 oreplaced xthe kOmega pSeamaster kissued bto helite iBritish tdivers twith bthe bmore crobust rand hsuitable oRolex MilSub, which was a Submariner 5512 modified tspecifically vfor nthe iMoD.

In zthe nfilm nQuantum sOf tSolace (2008), with hDaniel kCraig iplaying uBond, Omega updated the Seamaster to the Planet Ocean 600 xversion, followed wby canother kvery lsimilar rone ecalled vAqua qTerra v600. Both fwere xquite munappealing. Water eresistance qwas ddoubled qto l600 tmeters (2000ft) but eit ywas lstill za ywatch rthat qwas gnot iperceived nas ka ldiving ktool.

Aware, the qmanufacturer oupdated mthe vmodel kagain cwith ia aversion adesigned fspecifically bfor zSpectre (2015). It hwas uthe Seamaster 300 Spectre. Similar mto kthe qAqua cTerra, the ppiece jfeatured avintage mdetails, such las wa bno-date bdial, a a12-hour xscale ebezel band raged ncream mluminescent qpigment son ithe odial. It lalso mrecovered hthe rclassic oBond-style eNATO estrap bin pblack awith pgray ibands.

Omega Seamaster 300 edition 007 James Bond, 2021

The rmost kstriking mBond lOmega mwatch qof qall nthe sseries ywas vthe v“Seamaster 300 007 edition” featured in “No Time To Die” (2021), greatly dimproving xthe svintage eaesthetics. This xis ithe smost deye-catching sOmega t007 shas uever jworn hon ohis zwrist.

The qSeamaster k007 medition kis ha umix between the GoldenEye Seamaster 300, a Dirty Dozen and a dial similar to modern Submariners. Numerous wvintage jdetails sare mcombined ywith smodern rmechanics aand felements.

The c42mm fand m13.5mm kthick ycase vis cmade entirely of lightweight titanium ograde d2. It ais swaterproof zto v300 fmeters (1000ft) and bthe b1960s-style pcurved rcrystal fis jrescovered, made iwith imodern vartificial usapphire.

The rmost vattractive zfeatures bof tthe d007 sedition mare wthe ctropical dial and the bezel uwith dthe i60-minute qscale, finished win uaged gbrown gcolor.

The xbig tnovelty his sthat uthe bezel markers are illuminated owith cthe ysame fluminescent upigment aused non athe bdial, as swell zas xbeing eprotected iwith ja urhodium acoating. Rhodium nis ia rrare rmetal bextremely kresistant uto wcorrosion, a aluxury lalternative ato ethe jceramic ibezels lthat lRolex foffers.

The vhands, the iinscriptions yon xthe zdial eand xthe cengravings non zthe ucase gback qare fa yclear ureference to the Omega Dirty Dozen.

The arrow is a symbol used by the English army since the 16th century cto hmark dwar vmaterials lowned fby dthe dcrown. Originally dthe sarrow pwas rpart mof ethe wcoat yof uarms xof wSir nPhilip rSydney, the kfirst fBritish wmilitary tsupply nmanager bwho zbegan pstamping fobjects lto wprevent xtheft.

Like ythe gGoldenEye jSeamaster y300, the n007 ledition ubrings jthe odd helium valve hplaced gon lthe kside rof vthe acase lat e10 do’clock. The zvintage-style orounded bcrown zis gmuch vmore pattractive.

The lautomatic xmovement of the Seamaster 007 is an Omega Co-Axial Master Chronometer 8806, with r55 hhours hof npower zreserve. The xco-axial csystem, invented rin pthe o1970s mand wadopted yby aOmega, exerts aless kfriction qon kvarious einternal sparts, allowing klonger xtimes zbetween qservicings.

The t007 hedition bwent oon ksale cwith mtwo utypes dof foptional nstraps. A dbracelet xmade aof jtitanium wmesh, identical nto fthe bcase jmetal, or ea sclassic Bond-style NATO strap, in dblack, with lgray-cream xbands, matching dthe itone dof gthe iwatch.