From Dr No to Spectre – the Complete List of Bond Watches
We all know James Bond, AKA 007, the suave British secret service agent who has been on missions all over the world. Throughout many of the films, he has always had a wristwatch to keep track of the time and, in some cases, help him get out of a jam. Today we take a look at the watches that have featured in the films. Dr. No – Rolex Submariner Reference 6538 Ian Fleming wrote in the original Bond novels that a Rolex was the wristwatch of 007. For the first film, Dr. No, actor Sean Connery, playing Bond, wore a Reference 6538 Submariner. It was worn not on the stainless steel bracelet but a leather strap. From Russia With Love – Rolex Submariner Reference 6538 The watch was on the wrist of 007 again in the next film, From Russia With Love, on the leather strap. Goldfinger – Rolex Submariner Reference 6538 In the opening scene of third film, Goldfinger, we get the money shot that cemented the Submariner in cinematic history. Connery lifts his tuxedo jacket to check the time, with the aid of a cigarette lighter, and the details of the watch are clearly shown. The leather strap has been…
The post From Dr No to Spectre – the Complete List of Bond Watches appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
Last year, Seiko announced their Save the Ocean initiative – a partnership between famed underwater explorer and conservationist Fabien Cousteau and Seiko Prospex. This program is aimed at raising awareness (and funds) for marine conservation. It was also a partnership that saw some very cool ‘Save the Ocean’ editions of classic Seiko divers. Well, it’s 2019 now, and time for another edition of this feel-good diver. And while the blue colour theme is the same, the details are a little different. Meet the Save the Ocean Great White Shark edition ’turtle’ diver, AKA the Seiko SRPD21K. Fundamentally, this is the same Seiko diver we all know and love: 45mm case, Hardlex crystal, more than enough lume to shake the room (tick, tick, tick, boom), a crown at four allowing you to change the time, day and date on the 4R36 movement, a diver’s bezel with a blue and black aluminium insert, and a solid steel bracelet. What’s new though is, of course, the dial. It’s a metallic, shimmering oceanic blue, with a pressed pattern on it evoking, if not quite Hokusai’s Great Wave then certainly some pretty choppy seas. The link between the watch and saving the ocean could not be…
There are only three days until our competition for Australian watch lovers to win a Royal Enfield Stealth Black Time+Tide Special Edition closes. Entering is as easy as going here, letting us know what the last watch you bought was, filling in your details and joining our mailing list for all of those subscriber-only good-times. International readers win too, with free access to our Buying Guide, which until now has been print-only. We’re giving away a bike because, well, it’s a beautiful object. Either as the ultimate man cave decoration, or your weekend escape machine, it speaks to many of the design and build cues of the watches we love – it hails from a classic era of the motorcycle, it is made by a legendary marque in the motorcycle world, and there are lots of vintage-inspired touches that elevate it from a simple A to B vehicle. It was conceived in collaboration with the legends at Mid Life Cycles, in Cremorne, Melbourne. Royal Enfield’s Classic 500 matches the timeless look of the ’50s-style motorcycle with modern features for both safety and reliability, including electric start, ABS brakes, fuel injection and electronic ignition. The Time+Tide Stealth Black Special Edition adopts…
It’s been a minute or two since we’ve been treated to an automotive limited edition from the English chaps at Bremont. And can I just say, it’s been worth the wait. Today we’ve been treated to the latest chapter in their partnership with Jaguar (the first Bremont X Jag watch appeared in 2014), and this time around we’ve got a winsome chronograph that’s a wrist-borne celebration of the mighty D-Type. The Jaguar D-Type first rolled out of their Coventry factory in 1955. Jaguar planned to make 100 of these distinctive 6-cylinder racers, but only got around to constructing 75. Until now. It might have taken them a while, but Jaguar are, through their Classic Workshop, constructing the final 25 — period correct — cars. If limited garage space is an issue, the Bremont Jaguar D-Type is perhaps the next best thing. A solid (as you’d expect from the brand) 43mm chronograph, featuring that Trip-Tick case design, and a bi-compax layout in a blue dial (inspired by the colours of the Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar race team) looks the part. Speedy, but subtle. This is not a limited editon (of 300 btw) that screams ‘car-tie-in’, and that’s a good thing. But the…
Seiko’s core Prospex diver, known as the ‘Turtle’, is a rock-solid watch that’s a well-deserved fan favourite. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a compelling mix of classic, conservative dive watch style and idiosyncratic design that’s downright charming. It’s also quite a versatile platform, as numerous colour combinations, and dials demonstrate. If the blacked-out Ninja Turtle and blue-textured dials of the Save the Ocean editions weren’t enough to convince you, I present the Seiko Prospex SRPC44, colloquially known as the Golden Turtle. Before we get to what it’s like to wear this (very) gold watch on the wrist, let’s cover off a few of the core specifications of the Turtle. It clocks in at a very solid 45mm across (according to Seiko’s website), and 13.4mm tall. The crystal is Hardlex, Seiko’s proprietary tough mineral crystal. The band is an accordion-style diver in silicon, with gold-tone buckle and a metal keeper. The movement is the 4R36, which has hacking, hand-winding a date and a day. All good stuff. The case is rated to 200 metres and the relevant sections of the dial and hands are coated with enough Lumibrite to keep you up at night. So that’s the nuts and…
When it comes to watchmaking, it’s no stretch of a hairspring to say that Michel Navas has done it all. He was a key figure at Gérald Genta in the high complications team in the boom times of the ’90s. He also worked at Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. At Franck Muller, he masterminded the implementation of a complication based on the personality of its creator, from concept to the wrist — the ‘Crazy Hours’. The luminous brilliance of this invention, which sees the hour hand jump capriciously (and just about instantaneously) around the dial to the non-sequential numbers, is undimmed by time. Even after decades, the changing of the hour on a Franck Muller Crazy Hours watch makes me blink in surprise, every single time. While few would contest Muller’s brilliance, his frenetic, unpredictable process was just as legend – Navas is credited with translating this into a mechanical tribute that has become the singular Franck Muller watch. The icon for the brand. But, in conversation with his friend and soon to be lifetime business partner Enrico Barbasini, Navas concluded: “Between us, we had more ideas than the big brands needed.” So, in 2004, the pair broke away to form…
The Longines Legend Diver Black is available for pre-sale in our shop now! As Australians, and as AC/DC fans, it gives us great pleasure to announce that the Longines Legend Diver is back in black, and the first 25 pieces to be released in Australia are available for pre-sale right now in our shop for $3550. In typical Time+Tide fashion, there is also a premium ballistic nylon ‘Midnight Dark’ NATO included in the price, to give you an instant strap-change option that is 100% tried, tested and approved by our team. It looks like pure black fire, with black metal hardware to match. Preorder the Longines Legend Diver Black now. Needless to say, this new iteration of the popular model – based on a Longines diving watch from the 1960s – is not only back, and black, but it’s beautiful. This is the first heritage model in Longines’ entire catalogue to become a collection in its own right. And this first step, into decidedly urban territory, is a very exciting one. Apart from the PVD, the Legend Diver retains the bold styling that made the original timepiece iconic. It is powered by Longines’ L888 caliber. Design wise, the architecture of the original watch has been…
In 2014, with the launch of its first Octo Finissimo (hand-wound) models, Bulgari rewrote the rules of skinny. Until then, an ultra-thin watch was defined by discreet styling, a round case, precious metal – in short, the ultimate dress watch. Then along came Octo Finissimo, with its shape-shifting trick of looking both supermodel-skinny and swaggeringly muscular. Shamelessly modern! A sports-deluxe ultra-thin watch! Made of titanium! Jump to the 2017 version – the world’s thinnest automatic watch (until Piaget snatched the record back a year later). This time the entire thing was done in sandblasted titanium – case, dial, bracelet and clasp – the chromatic unity bringing even greater strength to the design. Then, last year, rhodium-plated and sandblasted steel, and sandblasted pink gold – the former with an almost icy-white tone, the latter smashing any prejudice we may have felt towards all-gold watches. Flashy? No sir. And this year, ceramic. Sandblasted. Deep, matt black. The Stealth Bomber Octo Finissimo. Black shrinks any object visually and the deep matt black of the Octo Finissimo’s sandblasted surface shrinks it even more. Except that it doesn’t. That shape-shifting trick again. The strong angles of its stepped bezel and lugs radiate confidence and swagger.…
Editor’s note: You don’t always need bells and whistles to make something truly exceptional. Sometimes less is more. The Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39 is a case in point. Here we look at the colourful series that was released a few years ago. And even though they’re not the latest, they’re still among the greatest. The story in a second: This could well be the only watch you’ll ever need. There’s a concept in the world of watch enthusiasts that’s referred to as ‘only one watch’. For the majority of the population, this concept is better known as ‘normality’. But if you’re the sort of person who has a watch for work, one for the weekend, as well as a dedicated timepiece for special occasions, there’s a good chance the thought of committing to just one will fill you with dread. How could you choose? Can you live without a chronograph? And do you go for fine finishing or bulletproof reliability? Well, allow us to humbly suggest that all you really need a watch to do is tell the time. Everything else is superfluous. We’d also argue that you need a watch that can handle the daily rigours of regular wear…