On October 31st one of the most beloved actors has passed away. Thanks to his appeal, he represented an icon of unparalleled charm and elegance. Born in 1930, more than ninety appearances for the big screen distributed in fifty-four years, Sean Connery left us after a long film career full of interpretations that allowed him to firmly enter everyone’s memories, just like the infallible secret agent 007, the introverted writer William Forrester as the erudite Friar William of Baskerville. And the list would still be very long.
However, is as James Bond, the secret agent at the service of her Majesty, that Sean Connery is often remembered by collectors thanks to the cameos of some watches that appeared on his wrist.

Sean Connery as James Bond alongside his Aston Martin DB5

Sean Connery’s first appearance in a movie, after initial theatrical performances, was on the 1954 in the musical Lilacs in the Spring. From there he began his career with films and television series alternating with several movies including The Longest Day which proposed the events of the Normandy landings on the big screen. That was the last film before Connery wore the suites of the inimitable James Bond, the secret agent 007 born from Ian Fleming’s pen.
Although the English writer conceived his protagonist on the Cary Grant’s archetype, anyone wondering who James Bond is – with no doubt – will show a picture of Sean Connery.

In the 1980s James Bond was played by Roger Moore, the actor who has impersonated him more times in his career and who would soon give way to his colleague Timothy Dalton. Also at that time the collecting of watches was not yet so fervently focused on wristwatches, instead people was looking for the historic pocket watches. However, something was about to change.
The transition between this decade and the following laid the foundations for an increasingly spasmodic search for vintage wristwatches as a symbol of style and glamour. The actors became the spokesmen of this new collecting and, from the amateur to the trader, all began to sharpen his gaze to catch an union of an era, especially of the past, between stars and watches.
Long before, Rolex had understood the importance of the visual message and had always been committed to associating its models with leading figures and events with which impress and highlight their watches and the brand. Just think at the beginning of the century when Mercedes Gleitze crossed by swimming the English Channel with one of the first Rolex Oysters on her wrist, as well as the dualism of the crowned house with the sportsman and skier Jean Claude Killy.

On the social wave of Swatches that through colors and shapes, but above all curious and extravagant names had ignited the enthusiasm in the people, in the neo-wristwatch collecting were born nicknames with which to rename the watches. First of all those Rolex, with terms such as ovettone, freccione, coroncione to arrive at inevitable names that would definitively tie the watch to a character and an era such as, to name just few, Steve Mcqueen, Paul Newman and … James Bond.

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress filming Agent 007, License to Kill

In 1962 made its debut the first film inspired by Ian Fleming’s books, with Sean Connery playing Agent 007 and Ursula Andress joining him as the first Bond Girl.
In the scenes of the movie Dr No Sean Connery was filmed wearing a Rolex Submariner 6538, the same watch that would accompany him in later films of the saga: From Russia with Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball.
If in the 1990s collectors with the term Coroncione had begun to indicate the Submariner models equipped with the 8 mm crown, larger than models with a 5.30 mm and 6 mm crowns of references with waterproof up to 100 meters, the attribute “James Bond” would irreparably identified forever the Submariner 6538. Like the secret agent, with the years the Submariner himself assimilated the connotations of charm and impeccability which lead it to abandon the appearance of tool watch and become a symbol of style.
Even today, despite the twenty-five films shot on 007, in rethinking James Bond as an actor we instinctively call to mind Sean Connery. If you were to ask at a watch enthusiast what the James Bond watch is, beyond the Pulsar (where it has already been mentioned here), the various Seiko, Tag Heuer and Omega, and despite the Rolex 5513 capable of becoming a circular saw, the secret agent’s watch remains and will remain the Submariner 6538.

Rolex Submariner ref. 6538 sold by Bolaffi

The history of the 6538 begins with the presentation of the first Rolex sports watch dedicated to divers in 1953, the same year that Blancpain launched the Fifty Fathoms and the Zodiac marketed the Sea Wolf. Called the Submariner, the first Rolex model was the reference 6204 and was characterized by an Aegler 260 automatic caliber, a rotating bezel with graduated black insert and a dial with luminescent indexes. The guaranteed depth was 100 meters and soon, looking for further improvements, Rolex introduced new models.
The reference 6538 was presented in the mid-1950s as a successor to the previous 6200, the first Submariner with a maximum depth of 200m/660ft.
Compared to its predecessors, the Submariner 6538 was equipped with the new caliber 1030 thanks to which it was possible to mount a caseback without the characteristic convexity. The reference remained in production until about 1959, when it later gave way to the 5510.

Photos of the caliber 1030, the caseback and a Rolex advertisement

In the film Thunderball, in addition to the now iconic Submariner, James Bond also wears a different watch. Given to him by Q, the Breitling Top Time used in the film is characterized by a unique and oversized shape as it incorporates a geiger counter useful for tracking down the atomic bomb stolen by SPECTRE. Thanks to this change, the Top Time is in all aspect the first watch specially modified by Q for the secret agent.
The original model was a Breitling Top Time reference 2002 for which the Valley Tool Company made a second 47 mm waterproof case recognizable in the different scenes.

Sean Connery and Adolfo Celi in a scene from Thunderball

The range of Breitling’s Top Time models was a series of economic chronographs compared to the top models, such as the Navitimer. Originally born in the 1950s, the Top Time chronographs during the 1960s were conceived for a “younger” audience, first with the reference 2000 and its variants that included models with waterproof and non-waterproof cases, round and rectangular pushers, as well as a varied type of dials.
The model worn by Sean Connery was a reference 2002-3, with waterproof case and snap back, round pushers and Valjoux 7730 movement to which, as mentioned, the lugs were removed and a second case was added to give it the final appearance.

On left two images of the Breitling Top Time sold by Christie’s in 2013 and used during the movie Thunderball
On the right, a specimen of ref. 2002 sold by Antiquorum

In June 2013 Christie’s sold for GBP 103,875 the Breitling Top Time exemplar used in the movie, which was found by a lucky discoverer after the watch gone lost.

If in his books dedicated to 007, Ian Fleming has never accurately described the watches worn by James Bond (only in Live and let die wrote generically about a Rolex), historically the first watch to appear on Sean Connery’s wrist during the filming of the first movie seems to have been a Gruen Precision, which can be seen under the sleeve of the tuxedo in the scene at the Casino. The same watch would later appear in From Russia with love and Goldfinger.

Sean Connery at the Scene of the Casino in Dr No

In the various articles dedicated to James Bond (including this one), even if the watch is never perfectly showed, many agree that the model worn was a Gruen Precision, most likely gold-plated, with a 510 caliber. A watch with a diameter of 34 mm manufactured in the 1950s, simple but elegant and in line for those years.
The Precision lettering didn’t indicate a particular model, but was a inscription that served to corroborate the accuracy of Gruen calibers at the eyes of buyers. This writing appeared already in the 1920s and 1930s, distinguishing the Quadron and Curvex models of the American manufacturer.
On the other hand, the caliber 510 was the basic movement of various Gruen dress watches, and from which were then developed the variants with sweep seconds and the date indication.

Honor Blackman in a scene from the movie Goldfinger and the Breitling Navitimer recovered in Thunderball

Two other watches that have become iconic in the James Bond movies with Sean Connery are certainly the Rolex GMT-Master reference 6542 and the Breitling Navitimer reference 806.
The first is found on the wrist of Pussy Galore’s character, played by actress Honor Blackman, the second belonged to air force pilot François Derval killed in Thunderball and whose watch is retrieved by Bond in the finale to be returned to the military’s daughter, as well as co-star of the film.
In addition to the irreducible charm of both watches dictated by their respective appearances in the two movies, both the GMT-Master and the Navitimer were marketed starting in 1953 respectively as the first automatic with a double time zone indication (together with Glycine’s Airman) and the first chronograph with a slide rule for navigational use.