With the draft manuscript still months away, and a publication date set for May 28, 2011, exact details for the next James Bond novel — code named “Project X” — are far from set in stone.

Exactly the sort of environment that makes a rumor-mill grind fine. Advocates will scream. And second-guessers will remain quiet until the facts are ultimately revealed (then claim they “knew it all along!”).

Notwithstanding, author Jeffery Deaver comes at a unique time in the history of successors to Ian Fleming and 007 story writers. His book will be the first to have been written after my identification of the original, literary James Bond watch in early 2008. On-screen, actor Daniel Craig has changed wristwatches three times so far in his portrayal of Our Man.

How much of this should matter, if any?

Time will tell. (And so will JamesBondWatches.com: More to come here on this topic by late-August, if not before.)

Image courtesy Ian Fleming Publications (formerly Glidrose Publications) website.

See Project X website for further details on release of this book, through Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom and Simon & Schuster in the United States.