Fleming Wristwatches Review

Recently, a thread received some added length to it on one of my horology enthusiasm forums, The Grey NATO. It is a somewhat common topic that resurfaces every so often upon wristwatch collectors and those possessing a zeal for timepieces. What watch does the fictional character James Bond wear?

For the purposes of this post, we’ll dismiss the cinematic Bond and focus specifically on the original literary character created by Ian Fleming. The cinematic James Bond is quite a different entity that has evolved over the years under the control of producers, marketing, product placement contracts, and the like. So, to answer the question, What watch would James Bond wear? can get to be a muddled discussion at best – eventually leading to the answer, “It depends.”

Even Hollywood, however, occasionally acknowledges the need to return to the Fleming source material. It is here where I’ll confine my observations.

There is a common misconception, I think, among us watch geeks that Ian Fleming was a fellow watch guy. The fact might be he wasn’t, or if he became one, it wasn’t until later in life. Granted this is all speculation on my part, but it would explain the gaps in detail of Bond’s timepiece.

Over the years, I’ve read plenty of magazine articles, and seen my share of YouTube videos by both horology experts and uninformed amateurs alike. All have stated in one form or another that Ian Fleming insisted James Bond wears a Rolex, and yet, I have never come across any direct quote where he actually said that. It’s all speculation, assumption, paraphrasing, and distorted quotes. Rather than dealing with them, let us analyze the novels he wrote as stand-alone cannon.

Bond’s time piece is not mentioned in Casino Royale – Fleming’s debut novel. Near the ending climax of his second novel, Live And Let Die, while Bond is scuba diving, the reader is told he’s wearing a Rolex. What model? It’s unspecified. It is simply a Rolex, and that’s all that is known. It is the beauty of the literary format, however, that the model is left to the reader’s imagination. Whereas Hollywood and the medium of pictures forces the producers and the costume department to choose one for the actor, here it can be wonderfully left to whatever you want it to be. There are no right or wrong answers here. It is simply, a ‘Rolex.’ My own speculative nature leads me to think an early Submariner, possibly a 6264 with pencil-style hands, but such things can only be calculated by imagination against the time-period the manuscript was written. Fleming didn’t tell us so we’ll never know.

“It was the keel of the Secatur, and Bond’s heart thumped in his chest. He looked at the Rolex watch on his wrist. It was three minutes past eleven o’clock.” — Chapter 19, Live and Let Die.

Following Live And Let Die Bond’s timepiece is not mentioned again until From Russia, With Love, and even then only cursory. Is it the same Rolex from LALD? Doubt it. It may not have even survived the ending of that novel. There are no details. In fact, greater descriptions are given regarding the villain Red Grant’s watches than of Bond’s. When the reader is introduced to Grant he’s on personal leave.

“There was also a bulky gold wrist-watch on a well-used brown crocodile strap. It was a Girard-Perregaux model designed for people who like gadgets, and it had a sweep second-hand and two little windows in the face to tell the day of the month, and the month, and the phase of the moon. The story it now told was 2.30 on June 10th with the moon three-quarters full.” — Chapter 1, From Russia, With Love.

However, later in the book when Bond meets him on the train, Grant is wearing an unspecified “battered silver wristwatch.” This indicates Grant is now on duty, and is most certainly not wearing anything gold and blingy (although that term didn’t exist in the 1950s) that would call attention to himself. Especially posing as a fellow MI6 officer.

(Regarding Grant) “A gold signet ring, with an indecipherable crest, glinted on the little finger of the right hand that gripped the guard rail. The corner of a red bandana handkerchief flopped out of the breast pocket of the man’s coat. On his left wrist there was a battered silver wrist watch with an old leather strap.” — Chapter 25, From Russia, With Love.

Bond’s own watch is damaged in the confrontation with Red Grant and, spoiler alert, he takes Grant’s ‘battered silver watch’ as a temporary replacement. Use your tools, as WOE would say, or anyone else’s I suppose if the circumstances dictate. You won’t be needing this, old man.

One of the reasons many of us love the Fleming novels are the rich details of both locations, of the heroines, the villains, and of course, the meals. However, given Fleming’s propensity for such exhaustive attention to these items — virtually none are given to the watches apart from the aforementioned Grant Girard-Perregaux. The remaining novels and short stories of the 1950s, Bond simply glances at his wrist. Checks the time, but never is the brand ‘Rolex’ mentioned even though the watch is described. Which seems to indicate a lack of interest in Fleming to be brand specific. His quote, “A gentleman’s choice of timepiece says as much about him as does his Savile Row suit,” aligns why he was so calculating with Red Grant in terms of setting the scene as an author. The watch is another descriptive of the characters just as their hair color or bone-structure of the jawline. Not of the brand itself.

(Regarding Milton Krest’s snoring) “This was too damned much. Bond looked at his watch. One-thirty. If the snoring didn’t stop in ten minutes, Bond would go down to Fidèle Barbey’s cabin and sleep on the floor, even if he did wake up stiff and frozen in the morning…

…Bond watched the gleaming minute hand slowly creep around the dial. Now!” — The Hildebrand Rarity, For Your Eyes Only.

I confess it’s been several years since I’ve gone back and re-read the Fleming prose, and so I could be mistaken, but there are few watch references other than these. Reading is an intensely personal activity, and therefore, as I’ve previously indicated, there are no right or wrong answers here. For myself, I’ve always liked to take the belief that Bond’s watch described in the Hildebrand Rarity is in fact Red Grant’s battered silver watch. I don’t recall if Bond’s watch – whatever he was wearing – survived his previous assignments with Doctor No and Goldfinger, but if it did, I like to think it was the commandeered watch from Red Grant. Although I concede Bond likely replaced it for a new, but similar, non-decript beater-watch.

In 1958 Fleming responds to a letter questioning Bond’s choice of timepiece (just as Geoffrey Boothroyd had called him out two years earlier regarding firearms which led him to switch Bond to a Walther PPK) as inadequate equipment.

“His practice, in fact, is to use fairly cheap, expendable wrist watches on expanding metal bracelets which can be slipped forward over the thumb and used in the form of a knuckle-duster.” Ian Fleming in response to B.W. Goodden, 5-June, 1958.

Note that Rolex is not mentioned by Fleming, but presumably it had been recommended by Goodden? He also added in the same reply that a heavier watch would “slow Bond’s gun-hand.”

As a brand Rolex has seen a dramatic shift over the last seventy or more years, but one thing that remains the same is it was always a higher-end product. What I generally  reference as, ‘Affordable expensive.’ Something that is of supreme manufacture. Rugged. Built to last, climb Everest, and will likely outlive you. Essentially the John Deere of watches. If you wanted one, but just didn’t have the money, you could save for it. Until circa the 1980s Rolex also fell into this arena. Like a John Deere tractor, it was a tool first  – not a luxury item.

Obviously, all that changed in the intervening years for reasons that go beyond the scope of this article. However, it is not too much of a leap to see Bond wearing one in his era — or Fleming.

Everything changes when we get to the 1960s. Somewhere between the publication of Thunderball (1961) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) Fleming purchased his own, now famous in watch circles, Rolex Explorer 1016. I haven’t researched any of this apart from what, like many of you, have read over the years from competing sources, but this seems to be the most likely timeframe. Was Fleming influenced by Goodden? Again, that’s speculative. However, it stands to reason that Fleming would now infuse something personal to him into the Bond novels as he so often did with villains and heroines — his own watch. It is here where a new benchmark is likely to have happened. Fleming still may not have become a ‘watch enthusiast,’ but he did want to insert his own personal stamp on his creation without being too overt about it. (Who at the time of publication knew he wore an Explorer outside of those he personally interacted with? Likely none.) Like the descriptions of villains, women, and culinary arts, suddenly the Rolex is integrated within the story. It becomes the now famous ‘knuckleduster’ as he fights to escape Piz Gloria.

“Bond surveyed his weapons. There were only his hands and feet, his Gillette razor and his wrist-watch, a heavy Rolex Oyster Perpetual on an expanding metal bracelet. Used properly, these could be turned into most effective knuckledusters.” — Chapter 15, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

“He sat down and bent to his paper-work and tried not to listen to the hastening tick of the Rolex on his wrist, tried to fix in his mind the rough geography of the Gloria Run he had inadequately learned from the metal map.” — Chapter 16, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

The watch, identified as a Rolex, is identified several more times including, “Bond’s right hand flashed out and the face of the Rolex disintegrated against the man’s jaw.” This is almost Fleming speaking to Goodden directly. Later, he does so again — specifically when he mentions the weight of the watch.

“Bond lifted his left wrist. Remembered that he no longer had a watch. That he would certainly be allowed on expenses. He would get another one as soon as the shops opened after Boxing Day. Another Rolex? Probably. They were on the heavy side, but they worked. And at least you could see the time in the dark with those big phosphorus numerals.” — Chapter 20, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

The final mention of Bond’s Rolex in the series is mentioned three chapters later.

“He glanced at the new Rolex on his wrist — the shops were still shut and he had had to blarney it out of Q Branch — and guessed they would be on time, 6 pm at Marseilles.” — Chapter 23, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

The brand Rolex is never mentioned after this point in the series from what I can find. So to say Bond “Has to wear a Rolex” doesn’t fit the publications. Furthermore, Fleming never uses the word ‘Explorer’ to identify the model (and yet we know he uses a Champion harpoon gun with double-rubbers and a Berns-Martin triple draw holster). My guess, again it’s a guess, this was done deliberately to keep it open-ended, and not to overtly announce Bond wears his watch. It is likely his 1016 Explorer, but he could always deny it if he wanted to in a dry, English-type way with a wink from behind his cigarette holder.

In You Only Live Twice we know Bond’s watch has been, again, replaced for a ‘cheap Japanese watch’ for his ninja-style infiltration of Blofeld’s Castle of Death. Notice again, like Grant, Bond’s personal watch (was it the new Rolex he had blarney out of Q-branch?) was replaced as he posed as a Japanese mute? The brand of the Japanese watch was not worth mentioning to Fleming, but it was more noteworthy that it was Japanese to fit with his clothing.

“Then, from the direction of the castle, came the deep tolling of a bell, and the men fell silent. Bond glanced at the cheap Japanese wrist-watch Tiger had provided. It was nine o’clock. — Chapter 17, You Only Live Twice.

I personally like to imagine this was an early Seiko 5 Sportsmatic. They would have been coming on the market just around the time Fleming was writing the YOLT manuscript. Anyway, as I said, reading is subjective and left to your own imagination. Nothing is right or wrong. It’s your interpretation of the novel.

We also don’t live in a vacuum nor are things static even if the printed words on the page are. People are allowed to change their preferences. Plus what was on the market in the 1950s and 60s has also changed dramatically.

In The Man With The Golden Gun more detail is given to Bond’s Hoffritz safety razor than any watches – using it to hide the tools of espionage – than his wristwatch. As if Fleming had checked that box in OHMSS.

“Bond verified that his room had been searched at some time during the morning — and by an expert. He always used a Hoffritz safety razor patterned on the old-fashioned heavy-toothed Gillette type. His American friend Felix Leiter had once bought him one in New York to prove that they were the best, and Bond had stayed with them.” — Chapter 8, The Man With The Golden Gun.

This shows evolution. If Bond switches razors moving away from Gillette, why not watches? Had he lived to pen a few more stories — whether full-length novels or another collection of short-stories — we might have seen yet another timepiece strapped on his wrist. A Hamilton Pulsar P2? Why not? Fleming appears to have been a man who lived in the now; not the past. The now for him was a Rolex 1016 Explorer, but it didn’t have to stay that way. Perhaps that’s a lesson for us all?

007 In New York he glances at his watch, smoking a king-sized Chesterfield, while daydreaming of his day ahead and his date with Solange. No details are given regarding the watch (presumably that Q-branch Rolex was lost in Japan, but he might have received another — we just don’t know); nor are they needed apart from the fact he’ll be at his destination by eleven-thirty.

Reading, like examining a painting, is interpretive art. Yes, the author specifies a story, actions of characters, the colorfully setting of the scene, but the descriptions of it all are the spaces between those narratives, and that is left to the individual. None are right or wrong. They simply are. My interpretations that appear here just fuel my perspective. I’m likely prejudiced in this area being a librarian. The reader obviously has their own mental picture, and there is a wonderful independence to that in a world that tries to compartmentalize everything in an attempt to process and homogenize. That goes for people, food, and art.

What is the make and model of Bond’s watch? A Rolex Explorer 1016? Perhaps a King Rolex Sub with “large phosphorus numerals.” We’ll never know for sure, but I have my own mental image, and I’m fine with it. I hope you are with your image as well.

Please feel free to fact-check me or comment. I’ve written this post mostly from memory and thumbing through some of the old dusty paperbacks on my shelf to make sure my gray-matter hasn’t totally failed. Thank you for reading this far. Take care…