The Red Bulletin April 2020

VENTURE
Equipment
Craig was given his first
Omega watch by his
dad on his 18th birthday.
It took 34 years – and
him becoming 007 –
before he got the chance
to design his own
There’s a moment in Daniel Craig’s first
outing as James Bond – the 2006 movie
Casino Royale – when British Treasury
agent Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green,
attempts to get a read on 007. “Rolex?”
she enquires of the inscrutable secret
agent’s taste in watches. “Omega,” he
corrects her. This is a defining moment
that sets apart Craig’s fresh take on
the famous spy from earlier, stuffier
incarnations. In truth, 007 has worn
an Omega ever since Pierce Brosnan’s
Bond debut in 1995’s GoldenEye, though
his connection with the Swiss watch
Craig in 2006’s Casino
Royale, sporting an
Omega Seamaster
Planet Ocean 600m
WEAR
Timepiece to die for
Omega Seamaster Diver 300m ‘007 Edition’
manufacturer – and specifically the
Seamaster line – goes back further.
When author Ian Fleming created the
suave secret agent, he drew inspiration
from real commandos he’d met during
his WWII posting with the British Naval
Intelligence Division, making Bond
a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. In
1957, when Omega released the first
Seamaster 300, it was based on the
waterproof wristwatches worn by the
British military in WWII; the rubber O-ring
gasket was even inspired by submarines
of the time. The timepiece proved a hit
with British naval divers, and by 1967 the
Ministry of Defence had commissioned
Omega to produce a ‘mil-spec’ (military
specification) version, engraved ‘0552’
on the back to designate it the property
of the Navy. Come 1995, when 007
costume designer Lindy Hemming
was kitting out Brosnan for GoldenEye,
she decided that “Commander Bond,
a naval man, diver and a discreet
gentleman of the world, would wear
the Seamaster with the blue dial”.
There has been a Seamaster 300 on
Bond’s wrist ever since.
To mark Craig’s final outing as
the stylish spy – this year’s No Time
To Die – Omega created this 42mm
Seamaster Diver 300 ‘007 Edition’,
constructed from Grade 2 titanium,
in collaboration with the actor himself.
“I had some suggestions and they ran
with it,” says Craig. “When Omega
showed me titanium watches in the
past, I always thought, ‘Wow, it’s like
you’re not even wearing a watch.’ They
said, ‘Let’s make it.’ We’re talking about
a difference of grams, but it’s incredibly
comfortable.” Craig’s influence also
extended to its alternative NATO strap –
“I’ve been doing that for years, sticking
them on NATO straps” – and ensuring
military authenticity: “You have that
heritage with Omega and the British
army watches of the Second World War,”
he says. “All those things I wanted to
connect through, they’ve done it.”
Most telling is the serial number
on the caseback, which features an ‘A’
(denoting a screw-in crown); the selfexplanatory
‘007’; ’62’ (the year of
the first Bond film, Dr No); ‘923 7697’
(which identifies it as a diver’s watch);
and ‘0552’, the mark of a true naval
commander’s timepiece.
omegawatches.com
TIM KENT, OMEGA TOM GUISE
74 THE RED BULLETIN