|
While it wouldn’t have made sense at this point to rule
out some form of polymer or high-tech resin as a case material, the
first most likely candidate here is something with PVD-coated surfaces.
“Physical Vapor Deposition,” or “PVD,” is a term used to describe a
family of coating processes. The general purposes for PVD application
are to improve performance in specific applications, namely, hardness
and lubricity (reduction of friction). By way of perspective, the
average relative micro-hardness of tool-steel measures 58 to 62 Rc
(Rockwell scale), versus well-over 80 Rc for some PVD-coated materials
applied using evaporation or sputtering technologies (based on current
2010 standards). Some process experts conservatively estimate that
this can result in a life of two- to three-times that of an uncoated
tool; extreme cases have shown ten-fold increases in performance versus
comparable base metals sans coating.
As various watch alternatives might have been
considered for 007 in 1986, this is very much the sort of description
one might imagine as having appeal to the James Bond film producers.
It’s in keeping with the cutting-edge direction that instructed
horological selections that began with the
Hamilton Pulsar featured in
Live and Let Die fourteen years earlier, and the various
quartz watch choices selected for many of the films that followed.
It also enhanced the new characterization of James
Bond as anticipated from the outset of the Timothy Dalton casting. A
tougher 007, as Michael G. Wilson, co-author and co-producer of
The Living Daylights said in the September 1987 issue of
Starlog magazine.
But in order to identify this watch with only the
visual information to which we had access, JamesBondWatches.com poured
through leading printed references and began periodically posting
different screen captures on various non-brand-specific Internet
wristwatch forums. The only context given was that the watch in question
was from the year 1986 or prior. The 980.031, of course, was in current
production during this time frame,
TAG Heuer a leading user of PVD coatings in wristwatch designs.
On Monday, May 19, 2008, I posted to the
JamesBondWatches.com Blog an entry titled, “Was the first Dalton-Bond a
Heuer?” In summary, the following was observed. “Shading makes it
difficult at this point to say a great deal about the case and bracelet
color, but the dial is clearly light. Overall, the images make the black
1000 series Heuer 980 diver with glow face a strong possibility. The
second image I’ve posted would be consistent with that watch in a PVD
body and matching bracelet.”
For the next twenty months, I sporadically shared
images from among the seventy-five-plus screen-captures collected. No
better alternative ever surfaced; nothing even close. At the same time,
arguments favoring reference 980.031 produced by the company now known
as TAG Heuer grew increasingly persuasive.
Go to
"James Bond wore a TAG Heuer
wristwatch," Part I (c) |
