Clancy Wristwatches Review

In my initial post Fleming Wristwatches Review, I went over James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s usage of timepieces as part of character development. Since there was feedback in the horology collective regarding expanding this into the Clancy universe, I feel obliged to do so.

Without question, Tom Clancy was a prolific writer. Perhaps not so much in terms of the number of his publications, but the volumes of parchment that each of them contained. Often credited as the pioneer of the techno-thriller (something he often deflected in interviews citing that Michael Crichton should hold that honor with works like The Andromeda Strain), Clancy is known for his abundant detail within the narrative — sometimes to a fault. Although, this is more true of his later works having long established his brand and transitioning to front covers washed in his name larger than the title if one looks back. My guess is the marketing folks felt people would just buy a book that says, ‘Tom Clancy;’ rendering the title largely irrelevant. I doled out what little cash I had during college. They were right.

In total, Clancy wrote a dozen novels involving his main protagonist, Dr. Jack Ryan, or at the very least, considered part of the Ryanverse if his creation failed to appear but was part of the same timeline. I am purposely excluding for this exercise a few of his later works (Dead Or Alive was co-written with Grant Blackwood) when he began spin-off series using established characters and collaborating with additional writers. His final three credited novels were co-written with Mark Greaney, and his final collaboration, Command Authority, being published posthumously.

I’m also not pulling in Red Storm Rising (1986) as the novel is a stand-alone epic; separate from the Ryanverse. However, I encourage anyone interested in this genre to read it. Red Storm Rising was one of my favorite books growing up, and has always sat as an inspiration to one day take a crack at writing something similar of my own. Beware, it is a lengthy read as most epics are, and serves almost as precursor to the thick phone books he would produce years later. So, from a horological perspective, I’m going to stay within the Ryanverse.

Similar to Fleming, Tom Clancy did make an effort to use watches, occasionally, as additional descriptors of his characters and scenes. Unlike Fleming, however, for all Clancy’s attention to detail when it comes to military craft, strategy, and the science that goes into geopolitical decision making, he didn’t offer a whole lot when it comes to timepieces. In fact, beyond watches there are very little physical descriptions of Jack Ryan beyond Clancy’s debut novel, The Hunt For Red October.

The novel is not broken up into chapters, but days, and the audience doesn’t meet Ryan until The Fourth Day, 6 December. It is here that Clancy pretty much gives his only detailed descriptions of his now famous CIA analyst:

 “What he had on was mostly his wife’s fault, an expensive suit bought on Savile Row. It was English cut, neither conservative nor on the leading edge of fashion. He had a number of suits like this arranged neatly in his closet by colors, which he wore with white shirts and striped ties. His only jewelry was a wedding band and a university ring, plus an inexpensive but accurate digital watch on a more expensive gold band. Ryan was not a man who placed a great deal of value in appearences. Indeed, his job was to see through these in the search for hard truth.”

“He was physically unremarkable, an inch over six feet, and his average build suffered a little at the waist from a lack of exercise enforced by the miserable English weather. His blue eyes had a deceptively vacant look; he was often lost in thought, his face on autopilot as his mind puzzled through data or research material for his current book.” — The Fourth Day: Monday, 6 December, The Hunt For Red October. 

Everything the audience knows, and will ever know, physically about Jack Ryan is summed up in these two paragraphs by Clancy. He is not James Bond flexing a Rolex nor Omega, or even a Seiko Willard for that matter, in spite of him having been a marine (although the audience has yet to learn this). Something I believe Clancy wanted to emphasize.

Ryan is a data-driven, by the numbers, individual. He’s technical, but not so rigid to the data that he doesn’t think outside of the box. Later in the same ‘chapter’ he’s dedicated to his family, and that he has, “sufficient financial independence to choose his own path.”

Ryan’s wealth is alluded to here. A fact that is brought up several times throughout the Ryanverse. He holds an economics degree from Boston College, and cashes in on a stock tip from his uncle involving the Chicago and North Western Railway in an eyebrow raising, gray area, suspicious of insider trading. His $100,000 investment flips to a $6 Million return. Something that occasionally dogs him throughout the literary series even though he is never formally investigated or charged. It does, however, test his moral compass, and an indication by Clancy, more so I believe, that because of his pre-existing wealth, Jack Ryan cannot be bought. Important as he enters his intelligence career.

I also find this part intriguing as, roughly a decade later, Aldrich Ames would be arrested as a Soviet spy and traitor. Here Clancy has seemingly already answered the question, Could Jack Ryan be coerced? His answer is no. Ames died in prison in January, 2026.

What does this have to do with watches? Specifically, not only is it seemingly impossible for Jack Ryan to be bribed to be a double-agent, he doesn’t flex his wealth either. A reminder, these manuscripts were written in large part during the 1980s. Excess and wealth were somewhat mainstream. Embraced. Stockbrokers flexed shiny gold Rolex Date-justs or similar wrist-wear. He isn’t Patrick Bateman nor Gordon Gekko. Ryan uses his wealth to live comfortably and provide for his family, and in turn, serves his country that provided him with the means to do so by defending it. So his choice in a watch, just like James Bond pondering in M’s study in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, “Another Rolex? Probably. They were on the heavy side, but they worked.” It’s utilitarian. Practical. It is, “an inexpensive but accurate digital watch on a more expensive gold band.” No mention is even made by Clancy as to the brand. It is irrelevant. It is more important what it is — not who made it.

Side note: my Father had a Timex that I felt was similar enough to the one described by Clancy. While Dad was never a wristwatch enthusiast, I privately thought of it as the ‘Jack Ryan’ watch whenever he slipped it on.

Right: Dad’s digital Timex with a hardcover edition of Patriot Games. The gold paint is mostly worn off on the expanding band.

An interesting note: when The Hunt For Red October was released in theaters, the publishers, of course, quickly scrambled to release an updated paperback edition — this time with actor Sean Connery dominating the front cover. Any librarian will tell you that whenever a new edition seeps out things are never quite the same, or correct. Which is why anyone ever properly cataloging for a library or other academic institution will explain never, ever, trust the ISBN that appears on the back cover. Trust the verso page, and even then it may not be correct. The ISBN of the ‘Connery paperback’ is 0425120279. The original hardcover ISBN is 0870212850.

Why am I citing this? Well, long ago I caught an inconsistency when the book was redone that throws off the meaning of the original text. In the paperback the quote that I have given above reads as the following:

 “His only jewelry was a wedding band and a university ring, plus an expensive but accurate digital watch on a more expensive gold band.” THFRO, edition 0425120279. 

Is it an expensive watch now? Most likely it isn’t. I do not know if this was a typo when the ‘Connery’ edition came out, or if some copy-editor misunderstood and ‘corrected’ Clancy and deliberately changed it to ‘expensive.’ Either way, it actually changes the meaning, and the description, of Jack Ryan. Clancy went through great pains to convey to the reader that, in spite of his wealth, Ryan wears practical, not flashy, attire. Beware re-issued editions!

Right: my personal hardcover editions including the re-edition paperback that was released to coincide with the film’s release.

As indicated, Clancy didn’t take a deep dive into his characters’ watches, but he did enough to convey what he felt was important to the reader.

The only other notable mentions of watches in the Ryanverse occur in The Cardinal Of The Kremlin.

 “It was bitterly cold when Ryan awoke to the beeping sound of his watch alarm. There was frost on the windows even at ten in the morning, and he realized that he hadn’t made sure the heat in his room was operating. His first considered action of the day was to pull on some socks.” Chapter 20, The Cardinal Of The Kremlin. 

 He checked his watch and decided that he’d wait to eat until lunchtime. His sleep cycle was almost in synch with Moscow, but his stomach wasn’t quite sure yet. Jack walked back to the chancery.” Chapter 20, The Cardinal Of The Kremlin. 

It would appear that the watch alarm came from the same digital watch described in The Hunt For Red October (Cardinal is the direct sequel.)

Later there is another watch reference involving former Navy Seal, John Clark, on a mission to extract a couple of Russian assets.

 “Clark slipped out of his coverall and climbed up, pistol in hand. For the first time he noted the harbor smell. It was little different from its American equivalent, heavy with bilge oil and decorated with rotting wood from the piers. To the north, a dozen or so fishing boats were tied to another pier. To the south was yet another, that one piled up with lumber. So the harbor was being rebuilt. That explained the condition of this one, Clark thought. He checked his watch – it was a battered Russian “Pilot” – and looked around for a place to wait. Forty minutes until he had to move. He’d allowed for choppier seas for his trip in, and all the calm had really done for him was to give him the additional time to meditate on how much a lunatic he was for taking on another of these extraction jobs.” Chapter 20, The Cardinal Of The Kremlin. 

This is the perfect watch for Clark operating inside the Iron Curtain. He is not sporting a flashy Swiss mechanical piece that would be spotted by Soviet surveillance. Nor is it a Casio G-shock or some equivalent for the same reason that a ‘Russian’ wouldn’t have access to. Again, Clancy selects a timepiece that matches the operation. Should he encounter KGB or GRU his clothing — including his watch — matches the situation and, more importantly, his cover.

Over the last couple years I have become a bit of a ‘Vostok’ fanboy after being gifted one from a friend, and former U.S. Air Force Captain, who visited Moscow in the late 1980s. Along with the watch he gave me a chunk of the Berlin Wall that he chiseled off, and a picture of him standing next to it with a hammer, as he put it to, “Show its authenticity.” He is no longer with us having passed a couple years ago, but that particular watch and the piece of the Berlin Wall sit upon my bookcase — appropriately so — next to several Clancy volumes. I like to think that the ‘Clark watch’ is one of these models. Perhaps a twenty-four hour Triumph? Again, the brand wasn’t important to Clancy. It was the style of the watch to match the character and the situation that mattered. Something that was low profile while operational.

There are a smattering of a few other watch references through-out the Ryanverse, but mostly they involve characters or Ryan raising and glancing at their wrists, and while I’m sure I’ve likely missed a few references here, these are the most prominent, and the writing style as it relates to watches for the remainder of the series.

Watches are tools. We are fans of them because they transcend their original brief of telling time or any additional complications they may contain. They are expressions of characters and style, literary and plot devices for authors. Their versatility assists in defining oneself just as an occupation, or something as simple as a haircut. I get it — who needs a watch? The time of day is everywhere: computer monitors, phones, on bank signs, but we still buy them, and they are still adored by many. Not because we need to know the time, but because there is an intrinsic desire to define ourselves. If not for others, then internally. That’s what watches help us do. Authors from Fleming to Clancy knew this, and that’s why they infused them into their respective works. If they were not needed, they would have gone the way of the typewriter, but they didn’t. I doubt if they ever will.