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Piece of the action

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Does a watch make a man? It certainly can make a movie. Watches - and clocks - have a long and illustrious history in the film industry. Timepieces cropped up frequently in silent films and recently they have almost had leading roles of their own. In The Transporter - I and II (2002 and 2005) - star Jason Statham spends almost as much time looking at his Panerai Luminor Daylight Chronograph as he does killing bad guys.

Watches play such a pivotal role in the imaginations of Hollywood screenwriters because they are props that say a lot about a character. The ultra-cool Paul Newman wore his Rolex Cosmograph Daytona with the same elan as Fred Astaire displayed in his top hat. The watch marked Newman out as sophisticated, tough and capable.

Newman played a racing driver in the 1969 film Winning and the watch was the perfect complement to his car. In the film Newman races in the Indianapolis 500. The watch became known as the Paul Newman Rolex after the actor appeared on the cover of a popular Italian magazine wearing the famous timepiece.

Wristwatches have always played more than a walk-on part in James Bond movies but long before 007 became a celluloid franchise, creator Ian Fleming had already issued James Bond with a wristwatch in his novels. In Fleming's book On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), Bond uses his Rolex as a knuckle-duster. Contemplating a replacement Bond says: 'A Rolex? Probably. They are on the heavy side, but they work. And at least you could see the time in the dark with those big phosphorous numerals.'

In the movie version of Dr No (1962), Sean Connery wears a Rolex Submariner which is now known as the James Bond Submariner. Bond's arch-enemies also wear interesting timepieces. Donald 'Red' Grant, an assassin played by Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love (1963), has an unnamed wristwatch that has a retractable wire garrotte. This watch is seen for the second time in the film of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Actor George Lazenby, during his sole outing as Bond, picks up the watch from a drawer of his desk as he contemplates leaving the Secret Service.

In the novel From Russia With Love, Grant's watch is described in detail. 'There was also a bulky gold wristwatch on a well-used crocodile strap. It was a Girard-Perregaux model designed for people who like gadgets, and it had a sweep second-hand and two little windows in the face to tell the day of the month, and the month, and the phase of the moon.'

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