Harold Lloyd suspended in the void, clinging to the hands of a giant clock in Safety Last!. A perspective illusion of early silent cinema, certainly. But also the archetypal image that comes to mind when talking about cinema and clocks, even before films like Inception and Interstellar, which of the intricate time planes and the ticking of the hands have made their basic and inescapable construction.
Harold Lloyd in Safety Last! (1923) | Credits: Hal Roach Studios
The watch on the big screen was already there long ago-as part of the actors’ wardrobe, as an authentic tool chosen for its technical credibility or historical value. Sometimes it becomes a decisive plot detail, sometimes a cleverly calibrated product placement. In any case, it is never neutral: it defines a character, consolidates an aesthetic, reinforces an identity. Sometimes it is a fragment of culture and history capable of surpassing the very memory of the film that made it famous.
The cinema-clock combination over the years has given birth to legendary icons, in the name of an art that is not content with just creating big box office hits but aims to permanently revolutionize the visual universe of entire eras.
Sean Connery’s 007 wore Rolex, Craig’s Bond chooses Omega
No combination is more legendary than that between James Bond and his timepiece. Born from the pen of Ian Fleming, the British spy found a definite aesthetic on the big screen when Sean Connery, in Dr. No (1961), wears a Rolex Submariner ref. 6538, turning it into the world’s most iconic dive watch.
Sean Connery while wearing Rolex Submariner ref. 6538.
Oversize 8mm crown, professional water resistance to 200 meters, charming charisma. It’s the watch that accompanies the missions of From Russia with Love e Goldfinger, whose pre-title scene portrays it as a protagonist: underwater instrument, ordnance timer, impeccable accessory under the cuff of a white tuxedo. With its 38mm steel case and 1030-caliber movement, the 6538 is a watch built for adventure. The black dial and luminous hour markers convey immediate technical reliability, while the domed plexiglass gives it a charm that still makes it unmistakable today.
Sean Connery in a scene from From Russia with Love, 1963.
With Daniel Craig, the epic gets an upgrade. In No Time to DieBond ‘s wrist is signed Omega Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition. The 42 mm case houses Omega’s Master Chronometer-certified automatic caliber 8806, antimagnetic to 15,000 gauss, with a 55-hour power reserve. The case back is engraved with the numerals “007” and a unique serial number; The strap is made of NATO fabric to echo the vintage effect of the dial, perfectly consistent with the contemporary Bond identity. Ample screen time and a very strong aesthetic identity have made it a new icon, worthy of the Craig era.
Apollo 13, Top Gun and Le Mans bring watches to the big screen.
The silver screen has always loved authentic instruments. In Apollo 13, the film chronicling the failed space mission of the same name due to a malfunction, Kevin Bacon wears Omega’s Speedmaster Moonwatch, using it to time the engine accessions that ensure safe return to Earth. Most accurate is the reconstruction, which recognizes Omega watches as official certified instruments of NASA lunar missions.
Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks, and Bill Paxton in Apollo 13 (1995) | Credits: Universal Pictures
A similar mechanism to Bond’s construction occurs for Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, star of Tony Scott ‘s blockbuster released in 1986, Top Gun. Tom Cruise wears a Porsche Design Chronograph 1 with black PVD coating, one of the first designed by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche and developed in collaboration with the Swiss company Orfina.
An object born for auto racing, adopted as a fighter pilot’s emblem. In the 2022 sequel, the myth is renewed by returning to the screen along with IWC Schaffhausen‘s Pilot’s Watches “SFTI,” created in real life by the U.S. Navy’s house for instructors and students.
Tom Cruise in Top Gun (1986) | Credits: Paramount
And then there is Steve McQueen, the King of Cool. Who in 1971 played Michael Delaney in Le Mans (the film dedicated to the 24 Hours of Le Mans) and chose for himself the Monaco ref. 1133B by TAG Heuer. The 39 mm square case, water resistant to 100 meters, is a revolutionary design for the time, with crown positioned on the left and chronograph pushers on the right, while the deep blue dial houses two silver-plated subdials at 3 and 9 o’clock and continuous seconds hand at 6 o’clock.
Inside beats the Calibre 11, developed by the so-called Project 99, a collaboration between Heuer, Breitling, Buren and Dubois-Depraz. This caliber, with micro-rotor and patented automatic system, is considered the first automatic chronograph movement in history.
Steve McQueen in Le Mans (1971) | Credits: Cinema Centre Films
9 o’clock crown, blue dial, racing spirit. And a lucky wrist, from an enthusiastic Steve McQueen car and motorcycle racer both on screen and in life make him the poster child for a stylish and rebellious counterculture. Victories at the Baja 1000, the International Six Days Trial, and the 12 Hours Sebring in 1970 today earned him global acclaim and a TAG Heuer named after him, with an aesthetic faithful to the original model worn in ’79.
Clocks in the masterpieces of Christopher Nolan and Bret Easton Ellis
The rest of the watches that have appeared on the big screen that I think of have an almost totemic presence: Patrick Bateman‘s Rolex Datejust, the small pocket watch in Pulp Fiction, the Hamilton Khaki Field in Interstellar. They seem to have been there forever, intersecting with their characters in a suspended time that lasts decades and that no one has ever forgotten. Contemporary then, eternal today.
Christopher Walken as Captain Koons in Pulp Fiction (1994) | Credits: A Band Apart, Jersey Films, Miramax.
For the yuppie in Ellis‘s American Psycho , the watch is not just an accessory: it’s a symbol of prestige and power. The Rolex, along with Giorgio Armani’s gray suits, becomes a veritable identity armor that certifies status, an instantly recognizable sign of success, control, belonging.
In Mary Harron‘s film adaptation, Christian Bale wears a vintage Seiko 5 SNXJ90 instead of a Rolex. Compact, sleek, with a 38 mm case, gold knurled bezel, white dial with day-date display, and Jubilee-style five-link bracelet, it is a sophisticated play on quotations and aspirations that echoes the prestige of Rolex perfectly consistent with the ambiguity of the character-where appearance is everything, and nothing is truly authentic.
In Christopher Nolan’s cosmic epic, the model developed by Hamilton for Murphy Cooper-played by Mackenzie Foy and later by Jessica Chastain-becomes the central element of the narrative. Through the second hand, which transmits in Morse code the data needed to save humanity, the watch becomes the only means of communication between father and daughter, separated by time and space.
Mackenzie Foy and Matthew McConaughey The two Hamiltons in Interstellar (2014) | Credits: Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros.
Today the Khaki Field Murph Automatic-available in 42 mm or 38 mm-is a faithful replica: steel case, black dial, hedral hands, black leather strap. But it’s in the seconds hand, where the word “Eureka” printed in lacquer lives in Morse code, that the only difference from the original is hidden.
Clocks in TV series
In contemporary television series, the watch is often an immediate signal of status, power, and social identity. More than mere accessories, timepieces become tools of visual characterization, able to tell the story of a character’s position, ambition and personality with a single detail on the wrist.
In Mad Men, watches mark the passing of the days on Madison Avenue. On Don Draper’s wrist, a Rolex Oyster Perpetual with a black dial and applied hour markers and a Longines Ultra-Chron with slender lines and domed glass alternate, contributing to the precision of the reconstruction of 1960s New York.
Tom Wambsgans in Succession wears an AP Royal Oak Chronograph.
In the corridors of Succession, the Roy family wears Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711s, Audemars Piguet and Rolexes of various kinds. Kendall Roy chooses a Richard Mille RM 67-01 – tonneau case, skeleton movement, technical aesthetic; Tom Wambsgans evolves from Cartier Santos to Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph. Signs of power perhaps small but decisive.
The same goes for Harvey Specter in Suits. His Patek Philippe and Rolex Daytona chronographs with tachymeter bezels and steel or white gold cases complement the suit and reinforce the image of confidence and control that defines the character.
Tim wears a Rolex Day-Date Ref 228238 with a black dial.
In The White Lotus, each watch helps to delineate the physiognomy of the protagonists: the 40 mm yellow gold Rolex Day-Date 228238 worn by Timothy, but also the same model that Victoria prefers with a champagne dial; the Hublot Big Bang Unico Black Magic and the Rolex Milgauss 116400GV chosen by Saxon, to Lochlan’s Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch Mission to Saturn, which is lighter and more ironic than the full gold of his parents.
Tony Soprano and his Rolex Day-Date 18038.
For Tony Soprano, the choice falls on a flashy yellow gold Rolex Day-Date 18038 with President bracelet. Next to him, Carmela wears a two-tone Rolex Lady-Datejust, while Uncle Junior chooses a Datejust 1601: variations on the same code that tell, even on the wrist, the hierarchy of power in the Soprano family.
Carmela Soprano wears a Rolex Lady Datejust
Conclusions
From the Casio CA53W Twincept Databank of Back to the Future to the Hamilton Ventura worn by Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii, the silver screen has built a gallery of timepieces that live in suspended time.
Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii wearing the Hamilton Ventura on his wrist.
In more than a century of film history, clocks have had different roles, spaces, and times. With value derived, more than from display on the big screen alone, from an integration that allows the clock to participate in a larger system of meaning.
Michael J.Fox in Back to the Future (1985) | Credits: Universal Pictures
When the match really works, the result is something that goes beyond simple product placement: an object that remains forever linked to a scene, a face, a moment of cinema. And then it almost begs the question: is it the film that makes the watch iconic, or is it the watch that helps make the film memorable?
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