Fleming & Rolex Explorer

Asp9mm

Found something interesting for you watch nerds at the Fleming exhibition. His personal watch is on display and it is an early Explorer. Could this be the watch he gave to Bond in OHMSS. We certainly thought this might be the case, and with the Explorer clearly labelled as Flemings personal watch, the evidence is good.

urhash

Confession: Am I the only one whose ever thought of socking someone OHMSS-style with a steel bracelet watch as a knuckleduster?

Asp9mm

urhash wrote:

Confession: Am I the only one whose ever thought of socking someone OHMSS-style with a steel bracelet watch as a knuckleduster?

Nope, hurts your knuckles though.

7289

Argh! GASP!

Are there pictures available of this watch?? I could tell that Fleming was wearing a Rolex bracelet in some photos, but there are no good shots of his watch.

I believe in one of the novels Bond's watch is described as having large "phosphorescent numerals" is this a feature of the "Explorer"?

Any other of Fleming's personal stuff on display?

urhash

Asp9mm wrote:

urhash wrote:

Confession: Am I the only one whose ever thought of socking someone OHMSS-style with a steel bracelet watch as a knuckleduster?

Nope, hurts your knuckles though.

Bar fight?

barracuda

Funny, I once suggested this, but I don't know where. I didn't know what watch Fleming wore, but came to the following conclusions:

- The Explorer was launched around the time of Bond's inception

- it would have stood up to Bond's scuba diving, although it's not a dive watch

- It was worn by Sir Edmund Hilary on his conquest of Everest which would have interested Fleming

Given that it turns out to be Fleming's personal watch I think you're bang on the money, except to say the Rolex was first mentioned in LALD

Asp9mm

barracuda wrote:

- It was worn by Sir Edmund Hilary on his conquest of Everest which would have interested Fleming

Given that it turns out to be Fleming's personal watch I think you're bang on the money, except to say the Rolex was first mentioned in LALD

Tenzing Norgay. Hilary had a Smiths DeLuxe

Although the Rolex is mentioned in the earlier books, the only description that really stands out as an Explorer is in OHMSS. That and the fact that the Explorer on show is a sixties model made me automatically think of OHMSS. Fleming owned a few other Rolex's in his lifetime too.

barracuda

Asp9mm wrote:

Hilary had a Smiths DeLuxe

But did Fleming know that?

Shows that Rolex's PR machine was in good form and why Smiths is no more

Nightshooter

Any pics of a period-correct Explorer?

Asp9mm

After the exhibition has closed I'm sure we can list some pics. But they have a no picture rule and it's not fair to ask if I can use it yet.

Donald Grant

Very interesting indeed. One of Steve McQueen's favorite watches was a Rolex Explorer II with GMT function. Here is a link to a '67 vintage Explorer that sold at York Time.

http://www.yorktime.com/search?cid=6:sku=281

I believe that one of the Rolexes that Fleming also wore had a yellow gold case but a different dial than the Explorer. You can see it in certain publicity photographs.

DG

Edit: By the way, nice find Asp9mm.

ke02eww

Donald Grant wrote:

Very interesting indeed. One of Steve McQueen's favorite watches was a Rolex Explorer II with GMT function. Here is a link to a '67 vintage Explorer that sold at York Time.

http://www.yorktime.com/search?cid=6:sku=281

I believe that one of the Rolexes that Fleming also wore had a yellow gold case but a different dial than the Explorer. You can see it in certain publicity photographs.

DG

Edit: By the way, nice find Asp9mm.

Thx DG...yes i've just checked and that's the exact watch...

7289

I take it the '67 Explorer in the link, evidently looks identical to one IF would have aquired in the '50s.

Thanks ASP9mm!

Any idea what other watches Fleming owned?

Donald Grant

As an aside, early Submariners were available with an optional dial. The optional dial had the 3,6,9 indices configuration and is what is know today as the "explorer dial". The explorer dial equipped early Submariner is considered rare and seem to appear quite often on the early military versions of the so called "Bond" Submariners (without crown guards).

DG

Asp9mm

7289 wrote:

I take it the '67 Explorer in the link, evidently looks identical to one IF would have aquired in the '50s.

Thanks ASP9mm!

Any idea what other watches Fleming owned?

I'm sure Flemings Explorer is very late fifties/early sixties. He also owned and regularly wore the Speedking.

7289

This is really wonderful information!

I really get tired of "Ian Fleming WAS James Bond", and "Who was James Bond based on"! It's really such a waste of time .... JB was a fictional charecter created by IF, end of story.

However, when it comes to certain objects IF assigned to Fleming, these are usually objects Fleming either owned or examined. I believe it is so with the watches in the novels. I suspect that the Literary Bond's Rolex was a model IF owned/used.

So again Thanks to ASP9mm for spotting the watch on display... and for the SpeedKing information.

It would be nice if the IWM displayed IF's RNVR Commander's Jacket with the "two rows of lettuce", or the Wilkinson Fairbairn-Sykes Knife he used to open his mail!

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