Another Bond Watch we’ve missed?

UNCLE27

This may be an on-set photograph but Sean is wearing the rest of the costume from this scene.
It may even have been discussed by that ‘expert’ Bond Watch aficianado who doesn’t frequent AJB.

Or, is this another (probably unidentifiable) Bond watch...?

Mattia De Varti

Isn't it the same Gruen he wears with the tuxedo in Dr. No?

Smithers500

I’d say it is the Gruen, even though there is very little to see, as I’m only aware of this and the Rolex being worn in Goldfinger.

Asp9mm

There’s absolutely no evidence that Connerys dress watch was a Gruen. It could be anything. A certain somebody just made up an observation and put a name to it and declared it as a fact which snowballed. Gruen isn’t a brand often encountered in the U.K. so it’s an odd thing to be seen on Bonds wrist. More likely a Smiths. To immediately think it’s a Gruen from the shots is coming from an American perspective of the watch market. If you come at it from a British perspective, then there’s no way way you’d think it was Gruen.

Smiths was a very prevalent watch brand during the 50’s and 60’s in the U.K. It was THE go too brand for presentations and dress watch etiquette. And they made many many different models that look identical to the watch we see on Connerys wrist.

Smithers500

Ah interesting, not heard about the Smiths watch before. Conventional wisdom seems to be that the Gruen was his own personal watch but I must confess I’ve only ever seen the edge of this in screenshots and never the whole face, so went along with what I’ve read.

Asp9mm

Smiths is a well know brand over here and even had the MOD contract for our military watches. Whilst Gruen was known in the US market, it’s not at all known well in the U.K. and would have been a weird choice. Only an American would have thought ‘Gruen’ immediately on seeing the watch on screen. It’s extremely unlikely it is that brand. If it was Connerys watch, then the odds of it being a Smiths are astronomically high compared to those of the Gruen.

UNCLE27

Absolutely Asp! I’ve never been convinced by the Gruen suggestion. None of the pictures have ever been good enough to identify it completely and I agree that Gruen is probably an American perspective.

Matt S

Asp9mm wrote:

There’s absolutely no evidence that Connerys dress watch was a Gruen. It could be anything. A certain somebody just made up an observation and put a name to it and declared it as a fact which snowballed. Gruen isn’t a brand often encountered in the U.K. so it’s an odd thing to be seen on Bonds wrist. More likely a Smiths. To immediately think it’s a Gruen from the shots is coming from an American perspective of the watch market. If you come at it from a British perspective, then there’s no way way you’d think it was Gruen.

Smiths was a very prevalent watch brand during the 50’s and 60’s in the U.K. It was THE go too brand for presentations and dress watch etiquette. And they made many many different models that look identical to the watch we see on Connerys wrist.

And countless other watch brands made or sold watches that look just like these in the 1950s and 1960s. In the US I see more Universal watches similar to this one than Gruens for sale.

For years I have seen Americans project what they’re familiar with onto Bond’s style. Like how Americans assumed that Sean Connery’s suit trousers didn’t have pleats because Americans didn’t wear pleated trousers in the 1960s.

Asp9mm

Matt S wrote:

Asp9mm wrote:

There’s absolutely no evidence that Connerys dress watch was a Gruen. It could be anything. A certain somebody just made up an observation and put a name to it and declared it as a fact which snowballed. Gruen isn’t a brand often encountered in the U.K. so it’s an odd thing to be seen on Bonds wrist. More likely a Smiths. To immediately think it’s a Gruen from the shots is coming from an American perspective of the watch market. If you come at it from a British perspective, then there’s no way way you’d think it was Gruen.

Smiths was a very prevalent watch brand during the 50’s and 60’s in the U.K. It was THE go too brand for presentations and dress watch etiquette. And they made many many different models that look identical to the watch we see on Connerys wrist.

And countless other watch brands made or sold watches that look just like these in the 1950s and 1960s. In the US I see more Universal watches similar to this one than Gruens for sale.

Exactly. Every watch brand on the planet was making watches that look just like that. It was a common and universal style back then. For someone to get up out of their seat and shout “Hey, that’s definitely a Gruen he’s wearing!” Is an utter nonsense. I’ve more than a 99.999999% chance of being right by saying, “That’s definitely not a Gruen he’s wearing!”.

Smithers500

Someone out there must have definitive knowledge as to what the watch is - and I would put my money on someone on these boards having that knowledge.

HalfMonk HalfHitman

Aftermarket strap or something Omega produced?

0073

Asp9mm wrote:

There’s absolutely no evidence that Connerys dress watch was a Gruen. It could be anything. A certain somebody just made up an observation and put a name to it and declared it as a fact which snowballed. Gruen isn’t a brand often encountered in the U.K. so it’s an odd thing to be seen on Bonds wrist. More likely a Smiths. To immediately think it’s a Gruen from the shots is coming from an American perspective of the watch market. If you come at it from a British perspective, then there’s no way way you’d think it was Gruen.

Smiths was a very prevalent watch brand during the 50’s and 60’s in the U.K. It was THE go too brand for presentations and dress watch etiquette. And they made many many different models that look identical to the watch we see on Connerys wrist.

I am quite positive, that it's a Zenith in hand wound caliber 40! And it has nothing to do with the fact that by coincidence I happen to own one!! :v

anyways, these earlier Bond movie seem to be rife with unidentified watches. I have tried to identify beyond doubt 2 watches from Thunder Ball: 1) the JB "Chopper watch" and 2) JB "Diving to the Vulcan" -stuntman watch. I am quite certain that the stuntman watch is not a Rolex, but I don't own a blue ray, so.... If anybody has any clear br images of the divers wrist, when he examines Angelo Palazzis corpse in the plane, we could shine light on this.

Asp9mm

One of the stuntmen wears a Rolex in TB. In Bond in the Bahamas on the CR extras disc, he actually points out that you can see the sun reflecting off his Rolex.

I will check out my BR for that scene though as that one looks like it has a full Bakelite bezel.

Asp9mm

HalfMonk HalfHitman wrote:

Aftermarket strap or something Omega produced?

It’s a Hirsch strap on both watches.

HalfMonk HalfHitman

Asp9mm wrote:

HalfMonk HalfHitman wrote:

Aftermarket strap or something Omega produced?

It’s a Hirsch strap on both watches.

Thanks! Here's a clearer shot of the TB stuntman watch:

Asp9mm

Cheers HH. Rolex Submariner. 6536 or 38. Amazing how just a tiny bit more clarity can alter the image considerably.

0073

Asp9mm wrote:

Cheers HH. Rolex Submariner. 6536 or 38. Amazing how just a tiny bit more clarity can alter the image considerably.

Is that a tropic strap?

Asp9mm

Difficult to tell. Could be a nato.

0073

Interesting article here at Fratello Watches: https://www.fratellowatches.com/tbt-the-underrated-bond-tissot-pr-516-watch/
This is definitely something that I've missed all these years.

Higgins

No, we haven‘t

https://ajb007.co.uk/topic/46225/another-unknown-james-bond-rolex-first-in-the-bond-world-on-ajb/page/2/

0073

0073 wrote:

Interesting article here at Fratello Watches: https://www.fratellowatches.com/tbt-the-underrated-bond-tissot-pr-516-watch/
This is definitely something that I've missed all these years.

That's what you get for not reading through the whole thread! ) ) )

Higgins

Probably you haven‘t ?:)

The linked thread has discussed the Tissot back in 2020.

emtiem

0073 wrote:

Interesting article here at Fratello Watches: https://www.fratellowatches.com/tbt-the-underrated-bond-tissot-pr-516-watch/
This is definitely something that I've missed all these years.

Me too up until it was pointed out on here recently!
That airport photo of him wearing it (in the black shirt) is a funny one because there is another shot of him there posing with a Rolex - although I think it's different from his main Rolex in the film. No idea what was going on there.