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An early example can be found around 12 minutes, 37
seconds along (as viewed on the 2006 Ultimate Edition DVD). Here, Bond
is sitting on the bed in the sniper’s lair, preparing his equipment for
the assignment, and the watch shows beneath his French Cuff as he holds
the rifle. At 39 minutes, 12 seconds, a
reflection off his watch case can be seen in the restroom stall as he
pulls Kara Milovy’s firearm from her white cello case. Then at 41
minutes, 18 seconds, another brief view comes during the scene in the
girl’s apartment.
Now look at 44 minutes, 2 seconds, which has James
Bond driving off from the conservatoire with Milovy in an Aston
Martin with Volante badging. As 007’s sweater pulls back from his hand
on the driver’s wheel, both the silver-colored case and indications of a
black dial and black bezel on his watch are evidenced.
Finally, around 1 hour, 13 minutes, 49 seconds into
The Living Daylights, Timothy Dalton is shown completing a
jump from one Tangier rooftop to the next, swinging with the aid of a
television antenna. The silver-colored watch brightly reflects as jacket
rides up forearm; texturing on the visible band is consistent with that
of a jubilee-style bracelet.
Fans have long assumed this must be a Rolex Submariner
Date. (The same guesswork, I’ll add, which altogether misses the
significantly more obvious TAG Heuer 980.031 seen earlier in the film.)
One reasonable basis for this speculation is the confirmed appearance of
the Rolex Submariner Date as James Bond’s watch in
Licence to Kill (1989), the second of Dalton’s two
performances as 007 and which premiered twenty-four months after The
Living Daylights.
There is also Dalton’s dogged commitment to portraying
Bond closely to the original concept of creator Ian Fleming. This is
perhaps best summarized by Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli of Eon
Productions, in his autobiography, When the Snow Melts
(1998). He wrote on page 282 that Timothy Dalton “…came to Bond
determined to re-create the character, and delved through Fleming’s
books for his source material.”
If this influence were to have extended down to
wristwatch details — which it did not — that would be a strong position
from which to argue that a precursor or even the same Rolex Submariner
Date from Licence to Kill had appeared in The Living
Daylights.
After all, the original literary Rolex specified for
James Bond by
Ian Fleming himself was not known until its discovery via
JamesBondWatches.com was chronicled in the
February 2009 issue of WatchTime magazine. That was
over two decades after The Living Daylights premiered.
Go to
"James Bond wore a TAG Heuer
wristwatch," Part II (b) |
