20 Things You Didn't Know About Dr. No

20. The Right Watch For The Right Time

Ian Fleming gave James Bond a nondescript name, but he did not want anything else about his creation to be dull; Double-0 Seven relies upon the best of everything. He therefore equipped Bond with a fictional Rolex Oyster Perpetual in the 1954 novel, Live And Let Die.

When Dr. No was made in the early 1960s, Double-0 Seven needed a wristwatch, so he was given a Rolex Submariner, starting a lasting love affair between the British gentleman spy and expensive timepieces.

Numerous people claimed to have lent their own Rolex Submariner 6538 to Connery during filming, including director, Terence Young; producer, Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, and a Royal Navy diver on the film's crew. Sir Sean even claimed that it was his own watch, even though that may seem unlikely for a jobbing actor, particularly as the Rolex ceased production on the 6538 in 1959 before Connery hit it big.

Whatever the story, Rolex continued to provide watches on an on-off basis into the Timothy Dalton era of Bond films until Omega took up this prime product placement position from GoldenEye (1995) onwards.