Taking Sides: The Best Bond Watch is the Omega Seamaster 300M
The perfect watch for former SAS types with easy smiles.
June 27 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of “Live and Let Die,” Roger Moore’s first appearance as the iconic British spy, James Bond. In celebration of the Bond who wore a wider variety of watches than any other, Jack Forster and Griffin Bartsch are devoting this edition of Taking Sides to try and answer, once and for all, an age-old question — what is the best Bond watch? Read Jack’s take here.
The first time I saw a Bond movie on the big screen, I was 14 years old. My friends and I hijacked an auditorium at our high school one Saturday afternoon and watched “Goldfinger.” Our school’s library had, mixed in among the archival material and stacks of literary tomes revered by the New England academics, the (then) complete collection of Bond films on DVD. So watching these movies with my friends became a ritual of sorts and helped me fall in love with the series.
Also, it turns out that at the same time as I was getting interested in the quintessential British spy, I was tumbling headfirst into the never-ending rabbit hole that is watch enthusiasm. Let me be the one to tell you, watching and rewatching James Bond’s adventures is a pretty good way of reinforcing a burgeoning interest in watches. At the very least, it’s enough to drive you to the internet, and, quite helpfully, there was plenty of amazing Bond watch content out there, just waiting to be found.
Now, in the years since my friends and I started our low-grade Bond film festival, my taste in watches has definitely changed. But, somehow, my pick for best Bond watch has stayed consistent. But we’ll get to that a little later.
A History of Omega and Bond
When Pierce Brosnan took over the role of the titular spy, it had been a long time coming. Longtime Bond producer Cubby Broccoli had first set his sights on the Irish actor 15 years earlier and was reportedly determined to cast him as the successor to Roger Moore when that time eventually came.
By 1995, that time had certainly come. When “Goldeneye” was released, Bond had been off the screen for six years. And Brosnan wasn’t replacing Moore, as Cubby had wanted — career obligations had prevented that from happening — he was replacing Timothy Dalton, who had turned in an underrated turn as the spy in two films in the late ‘80s.
1987’s “The Living Daylights” and 1989’s “License to Kill” had each done pretty well at the box office, but legal issues had mired the then-untitled 17th Bond film in development hell, and Dalton’s contract had expired. By the time Brosnan finally picked up the Walther PPK and the keys to his Aston Martin, a lot had changed.
The Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union had both fallen (depriving Bond of his most stalwart foe), and Cubby Broccoli had taken a step back due to health issues, passing the reigns to his daughter Barbara. With six years having passed since Bond’s last big screen appearance, everything about the franchise was rethought from the ground up.
The tone was lightened for a post-Cold War world, the action was stepped up, and a number of important roles were recast. In fact, the only cast member to stay on from the earlier days of Bond was Desmond Llewelyn, who continued on as Q, a part he had been playing since 1963’s “From Russia With Love.”
And that was all before Lindy Hemming got involved. An Oscar-winning costume designer with an impressive list of credits (one which includes everything from Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy to the Paddington Bear films), Hemming was responsible for updating Bond’s look.
Hemming started by moving Bond away from his Saville Row tailoring, dressing the gentleman spy in Brioni, an Italian tailor who could produce suits at a scale unheard of in the small tailoring shops of London, and — in what maybe seemed like a smaller choice at the time — she picked out a new watch.
Having grown up around several generations of Royal Navy sailors through her father, an RAF veteran, Hemming felt there was only one brand a Naval officer like Bond would wear, Omega. The brand that had been providing watches to the Senior Service since 1914.
To suit the refined European style of this new Bond, Hemming chose the luxurious Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300M. Between the elegant design, svelte case, and robust construction, the Omega was the perfect choice for a man who, at any moment, might be required to show up in a dinner jacket or dive into the ocean.
Contrary to popular belief. The choice of Omega was not motivated by product placement, but Jean-Claude Biver, then at the helm of Omega, did as he is known to and jumped at the opportunity.
The Watches Themselves
Though he is clearly best associated with the Diver 300M, over the last 28 years and nine films, 007 has experimented with a wide range of watches from the Seamaster line, so before we can move on, I figure it’s time to run through some of them.
Seamaster Diver 300M Professional Quartz Ref. 2541.80.00
This is the watch that kicked the whole thing off. Used in “Goldeneye,” this quartz watch got some serious screen time, thanks in large part to the gadgets hidden inside its 41mm case, including a laser cutter in the luminous pip and a detonator control in the helium escape valve.
Bond’s choice of Omega immediately made the watch an icon, and the polished five-link bracelet, blue wave dial, scalloped bezel, and skeleton hands made the watch instantly recognizable on screen. And that Sean Bean kept his 2541.80 when he turned on his former colleague just speaks to how good this watch really is.
Seamaster Diver 300M Professional Automatic Ref. 2531.80.00
The universally recognized Bond watch, the Ref. 2531.80 took the same premise and layout of its quartz sibling and stepped up to an automatic movement. While the only obvious visual difference between this and its predecessor is an extra line of text (well, that and a bunch of new gadgets, like a grappling hook), the Bond Seamaster was featured in three movies and carried Brosnan through the end of his career playing the rakish spy.
The 2531.80 also drove huge sales for Omega and is often cited as an early purchase or influence for enthusiasts of all stripes, including Tim Mosso.
Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M Ref. 2900.50.91
2006 saw the introduction of yet another new Bond and a new era of storytelling. Daniel Craig was a Bond for a world that had experienced trauma, not to mention one that had seen Jason Bourne change spy movies forever. This was a more grounded, less experience Bond, one stripped from his gadgets and thrown into a much more brutal world.
And so, it made sense that he would shift away from the elegance we had come to know, and into a rubber strapped, 45.5mm monster of a dive watch. To this day, the Madagascar foot chase sequence of “Casino Royale” is one of the most dynamic and impressive sequences in any of these films, and the Planet Ocean on Bond’s wrist helped cement the look of the moment.
Seamaster Diver 300M Professional Automatic Ref. 2220.80.00
All that said, when it was time to move into a more sophisticated world — after all, there are dinner jackets, and there are dinner jackets — Daniel Craig’s Bond still knew that he had to reach for something more refined. The 2220.80 fit the bill. An updated version of Brosnan’s watch, the 2220.80 served as the perfect bridge from the Brosnan era.
No gadgets in this one, but it was the watch on Bond’s wrist when he first met Vesper Lynd, leading to one of the most quoted sequences of Craig’s tenure.
Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M Ref. 2201.50.00 and Ref. 232.30.42.21.01.001
“Quantum of Solace” saw the return of the Planet Ocean. Worn on a bracelet, Bond wore the Planet Ocean until his return from the dead in Skyfall (though the one featured in “Skyfall” was of a later generation). This watch remains exactly what Daniel Craig’s Bond was — brutal and capable, without sacrificing a certain charm.
Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M Ref. 231.10.39.21.03.001 and Ref. 231.10.42.21.03.003
After two films devoted to stripping back the essentials of the Bond mythos, “Skyfall” started to build it back up, reintroducing characters like Moneypenny and Q, and letting Javier Bardem play into the grand tradition of the “colorful megalomaniac” (as they referred to the trope in the first Kingsman film).
No dive bezel on this one, and still no gadgets, but the Aqua Terra (upsized from 38.5mm to 41.5mm in its second appearance) stayed on Bond’s wrist through the opening of “Spectre,”when it came time to upgrade — and resurrect a familiar trope.
Seamaster 300 Spectre Edition 233.32.41.21.01.001
Spectre saw the re-introduction of the gadget watch. This was the first Seamaster designed specifically for use in the film, and featured a bomb controlled by the rotating bezel. Used to get Bond out of a very particular pinch and worn on a NATO-style strap reminiscent of the one worn by Sean Connery in the early days of Bond, there was no denying that this was a Bond watch through-and-through.
Seamaster Diver 300M Edition 007 210.90.42.01.001
This brings us to the latest and greatest. To celebrate Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond, Omega worked with the team behind the Bond films to put together something special. With a titanium case and mesh bracelet, Broad Arrow and other M.O.D. (Ministry of Defence) markings, and a matte aluminum dial and bezel, this feels like a truly lived-in Bond watch — one perfect for a short-lived Jamaican retirement.
Oh, and the watch also gets to live up to the gadgety history of Bond watches thanks to an EMP upgrade from Q — thankfully, the METAS-certified movement in the watch is anti-magnetic.
If I Had to Pick One
Ultimately, the point of this isn’t to talk about every Bond watch so much as to pick one watch to elevate above the rest and, for me, there is truly only one possible answer — the Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300M Co-Axial Ref. 2220.80.00, as worn by Daniel Craig in the latter portion of “Casino Royale.”
This is the watch on Bond’s wrist for the entirety of the time he knows Vesper Lynd, and, just as that time defined Craig’s tenure, so too does the 2220.80 define Omega’s tenure as the makers of 007’s preferred timepieces.
The Omega 2220.80 captures everything that made the 2531.80 stand out, while still taking advantage of a number of the technical advancements which have set Omega apart in the last 20 years.
The blue wave dial, thin case, aluminum bezel, helium escape valve, skeleton hands, and five-link bracelet definitively identify the 2220.80 as a Bond watch, but small upgrades made to the 2220.80 make all the difference.
Applied markers, an applied logo, red Seamaster text, slightly elongated hands, and a Co-Axial movement are only some of the changes that make this watch the perfect representation of Bond. Not necessarily super-human, but always striving to be a little better.
Now, if we’re being entirely honest with each other, I have to pick this watch because, well, this is the one I actually picked. Ten years after recognizing the watch on Bond’s wrist and after a lot of hunting, I found myself with an Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300M Co-Axial Ref. 2220.80.00 strapped to my wrist. Three years on, it has far exceeded my expectations.
So, while other Bond watches may come and go, for me, there will only ever be one Bond watch, and that’s the one on my wrist.