As the story goes— budget constraints kept EON producers from purchasing a Rolex wristwatch for Sean Connery to wear as James Bond in Dr. No. Most often you’ll read that it was Albert R. Broccoli (“Cubby”) who took the personal watch off his own wrist to provide it for use in filming.
Alternatively, this anecdote has been placed at a pre-production meeting, and, more recently, as a move not made until the very first days of filming in Jamaica.
It’s been assumed that this watch was a Rolex Submariner model, although the fact seems to have been missed until first reported here last April that there were at least two watches worn by Mr. Connery’s 007 in Dr. No.
On September 25 of this year, in response to a thread I started in one of the Internet vintage Rolex forums, James M. Dowling weighed in. Along with Jeffrey P. Hess, James Dowling is co-author of The Best of Time: Rolex Wristwatches, Revised and Expanded 3rd Edition with Values (Atglen, Pennsylvania, Schiffer Publishing Ltd: 2006).
Hi DD;
There were two key people behind the public image of the early James Bond; Albert R. Broccoli and Terence Young.
Let us examine the backgrounds of these two principals and see what we can deduce:
Broccoli was born in New York to a typical Italian-American family (typical to the extent that he even had a gangster as a cousin); he worked as an agent before getting into the film business. Every photograph I have ever seen of him shows him wearing a suit & a tie.
Here is the Wikipedia entry on Young: ‘Terence Young WAS James Bond’ wrote Robert Cotton. There is little doubt Young fit the profile of Bond – the erudite, sophisticated lady killer, dressed in Savile Row suits, always witty, well-versed in wine, and comfortable at home and abroad. Cotton commented, ‘As Lois Maxwell related in one of Connery’s many biographies, “Terence took Sean under his wing. He took him to dinner, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat.” Some of the cast remarked that Connery was simply doing a Terence Young impression, but Young and Connery knew they were on the right track.’ During the filming of From Russia with Love, Young and a photographer nearly drowned when their helicopter crashed into the sea while filming a key sequence. They were rescued by other members of the film crew. Ever the tough guy, Young was back behind the camera thirty minutes after being rescued.
If you had to pick a watch for either of them based on their character & history; I would choose a very slim gold watch on a Milanese gold band for Broccoli and a butch sports watch for Young.
Also think about this; which one of the two mentored Connery in the role of James Bond?
Merely opinion, of course — and in no way represented by Mr. Dowling as anything more than that. Still, it’s nice to see that James Bond watches enjoy this level of visibility and reading among passionate Rolex aficionados.
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