Something is cooking up at Omega and it appears to be James Bond related.
Eagle-eyed sleuths have noticed among the slew of Seamaster’s available on the Omega website that an empty product page exists for a watch and all signs point to be it being a new James Bond edition, possibly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Casino Royale in which Daniel Craig wore the same model.
The main giveaways are that there is a tab on the product page that says “James Bond Edition” while Omega’s logo also changes to Spectre’s octopus motif for a few seconds.
While there are no pictures, various technical specifications are listed on the page, though it cannot be confirmed if these are accurate or not.
The specs list the watch at 42mm with a steel case and blue dial, just like what Craig wore in Casino Royale 20 years ago.
Omega are yet to comment on the speculation but Casino Royale is set to be re-released in cinemas on October 5, the same date as James Bond Day, so expect some kind of announcement very soon.
On the big screen, Bond has strictly worn Omega since the first Pierce Brosnan film, GoldenEye, which was released in 1995.
While Omega remain closely associated with Bond, the latest 007 book as the secret agent wearing a different watch brand.
In King Zero, the new 007 novel from Charlie Higson, Bond will wear a vintage Vertex Cal. 59, one of the original Dirty Dozen watches manufactured during the Second World War at the behest of the British military.
In the book, Bond inherits the watch from an uncle who saw action on D-Day with Higson describing the watch as a “solid reminder of the real world” for Bond.
Not one of the best known brands or even one of the best known Dirty Dozen watches, Vertex was founded in 1912 and was the only British company to supply pieces to the military during the war alongside the likes of Omega, IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre.
In 1944, Vertex began large-scale production of the Cal. 59 with more than four thousand models distributed to troops in advance of D-Day.
The Ministry of Defence had strict criteria for the Dirty Dozen watches with every piece having to have a black dial, clear Arabic numerals and luminous hour hands as well as a minutetrack, a subdial and be made out of shatterproof crystal. On top of all that, the watch also had to be waterproof. Any Dirty Dozen watch is easily identified by all these attributes as well as a “W.W.W.” stamp on the caseback which appropriately stands for “Watch. Wrist. Waterproof.”
The Cal. 59 was also manufactured for the war and can be found on the secondary market, usually for less than £2,000, which is around half of what the JLC equivalent costs.
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