James Bond Watches Blog

Heuer 980-series Night Dive watch ad, placed just a few years before it would become a James Bond watch in "The Living Daylights"

This advertisement is from the August 1983 issue of Skin Diver magazine.

Among watch models featured, we see the reference 980.031 PVD Night Diver from what was then the Heuer Time & Electronics Corporation.

Actor Timothy Dalton wore that model as James Bond in the Eon Productions 007 movie, The Living Daylights, 1987.

Technical specifications include details on the phosphorescent glow-dial (after just 10 seconds of exposure to light, the entire dial was said to glow for an average of 10 minutes).

Beyond that, tritium markers on the hands markers at 12, 6, and 9 o’clock positions glowed “even without previous activation.”

A total of 6 color and size variations are shown here, beyond which, alternatives were “available with non-phosphorescent dials.”

In addition to providing historical information on reference numbers and certain specifications, advertisements such as this make great collector pieces in their own rights. I know some people who focus on individual watches, but go deep with them — building out what they own to include original packaging, instructions, ads such as this, and collateral material.

Often at nicely accessible prices.

James Bond watch in context: Heuer 980.031 PVD Night Dive, a'la The Living Daylights and pre-title training exercise over Gibraltar

This photo was actually released about two years ago — first accompanying the article I wrote on the discovery that David Chalmers, Paul Gavin, and I had made in identifying the James Bond watches worn in The Living Daylights.

But now this layout is available for download as computer wallpapers, in a variety of screen-aspect ratios.

Again, this is the Heuer model 980.031 professional Night Dive wristwatch. The example shown here is in mint condition, which is exceedingly rare for any PVD-coated watch from the 1980s.

Timothy Dalton wore a similar watch as James Bond during the pre-title sequence. The watch has also been identified as the timekeeper on two other characters in The Living Daylights as well, one of which was Felix Leiter (played by actor John Terry).

Reminiscent of the training exercise on Gibraltar, I set this shot up to show the watch above water. Not a particularly challenging setup, but nice looking.

(That said, lighting a light-dial, black-case watch is completely different from black-dial, silver-colored casing approaches, if that’s what you’re used to.)

These continue reading…

The last 10 years of James Bond history saw the discovery of the TAG Heuer watch models featured in "The Living Daylights," starring Timothy Dalton as Ian Fleming's Agent 007

As we prepare to commemorate the completion of another decade in James Bond history, I thought we should devote a few posts here to looking back on some recent watch-related highlights.

First up: TAG Heuer has now been recognized as a James Bond watch brand.

Prior to 2010, no one had ever identified the watch or watches worn by actor Timothy Dalton as James Bond in the Eon Productions 007 movie, The Living Daylights (1987).

Worse yet, the cut-and-paste “definitive list of James Bond watch” websites and forum gadflies simply assumed it must have been a Rolex Submariner.

Now tell me— how could anyone confuse a black PVD Heuer model 980.031 Night Dive wristwatch with a mid-1980s Sub from Rolex?

Working with Heuer / TAG Heuer experts David Chalmers and Paul Gavin, we identified not only the two correct James Bond watches for The Living Daylights, but also a number of other watches seen in the movies. Worn by villains, and 007 ally Felix Leiter.

For Bond: A 980.013 Professional and a 980.031 PVD Night Dive.

Our story then first broke on CommanderBond.net, April 2, 2010, as the first of a two-part series.

You can also read it here on this James Bond Watches Blog.

A few short months later, three examples of 007 continue reading…