The Petrolhead Corner – The James Bond Edition – The Best, The Forgotten and The Future Cars Driven By Secret Agent 007
Looking at a James Bond movie is, for men, like a kid going to the amusement park… Obviously, everything a man can dream of is in (I know, this will sound a bit simple-minded, if not almost misogynist…), and that includes the nice girls, the fine liquors, the elegant wardrobe, the great locations, the cool watches, the action and… an impressive selection of cars. Some iconic, some to better forget, some clearly under-appreciated. So, in our latest episode of this fuel-infused column, The Petrolhead Corner, we take a look at the best, the forgotten and the future cars driven by the world’s most famous secret agent, James Bond a.k.a. 007.
Boutique British watchmaker Farer have just released what many in the horological community are calling their best watch to date – the Farer Roché World Timer. Hewn from 316L stainless steel, the svelte 39mm case of the Roché World Timer is a mere 11mm thick, ensuring that the timepiece offers a great amount of bandwidth when it comes to wearability, while simultaneously landing it firmly in what many consider to be the “Goldilocks zone” of watch sizes. Housed inside the polished steel case is ETA’s venerable 2893-1 “Top Grade” movement, a self-winding job that offers a great many features, including 48 hours of power reserve, world time complication, date complication, 21 jewels and 28,800 (4Hz) vibrations per hour. Navigating and setting the various features of the Farer Roché World Timer has also been made easy thanks to two separate crowns. The first, which is located at the traditional three o’clock position, allows wearers to adjust the time, date and universal 24-hour disk. While the second crown, which can be found on the opposite side of the case at 10 o’clock, controls the inner bezel of the 24 different time zones.In addition, owners can fully admire this workhorse of a movement…
Editor’s note: With the hype around AP’s perennially popular Royal Oak seemingly drowning out the noise from almost any other watch in the horological industry, it’s easy to forget that Audemars Piguet themselves make a fair few other excellent timepieces. And I’m not even talking about the doyens of the Le Brassus’s most recent timepiece, Code 11.59. No, Audemars Piguet’s Millenary collection is so often overlooked, and it shouldn’t be, because it’s a great watch that well and truly has earned its place in AP’s collection. A couple of years ago, Felix Scholz was fortunate enough to go hands-on with a great example of the Millenary, the Audemars Piguet Millenary Quadriennium, and these were his initial thoughts. The story in a second: Audemars Piguet have developed a cool new calendar complication, but the watch it’s showcased in fails to deliver as a complete package. I had two questions when I was first handed the new Audemars Piguet Millenary Quadriennium. Firstly, what is a Millenary Quadriennium? And secondly, does it have anything to do with the Millennium Falcon? The Millenary collection isn’t what immediately comes to mind when you think of Audemars Piguet. In fact, the unusual oval case shape looks like…
The story in a second: The Bremont H-4 Hercules offers a tool watch, which could pair with a dinner jacket, and doesn’t lose any Bremont DNA. In any piece of design, there is a source of inspiration that is at least, in part, responsible for the final product that you are looking at. In the case of the Bremont H-4 Hercules, the source of inspiration requires a look back over 70 years into the history books. The year was 1942, and the Second World War was at a peak in the conflict, with fierce battles being fought across land, air and sea. It was the battle of the seas that the Allied powers were losing however, with the Nazi U-boat proving to be a formidable weapon against supply and troop ships, sinking 681 vessels by the middle of that year. Despite the war machine industrialising the ship-building process to improve the completion speeds of ship builds by more than 700%, the Germans were still torpedoing them faster than they could be made. In an example of the simplest solution sometimes being the best, American industrialist Henry Kaiser had the bold idea to simply get out of the water. His answer…
Earlier this year, we were invited by CNN to help out with a miniseries concept called ‘Timeless’ that would explore the most iconic watches of all time. Oh, and each episode had to wrap in under 60 seconds. The challenge was set, Jack Forster and I – in our respective HQs – raced against the clock to get out as many interesting and memorable facts as we could about models such as the Submariner, the Navitimer and the Royal Oak. It was hardly a lazy fireside chat, more of a caffeine-fuelled game show. Here’s the first episode, starring the Rolex Submariner, which is currently airing on CNN. You can check out the Breitling and Audemars Piguet episodes on our YouTube channel. 
