I don’t think it is any secret anymore, but I am a huge James Bond fan. The style. The intrigue. The action. The charm. And, feeding into my chronophile nature, the watches. While James Bond has always been a Rolex guy at the beginning (in the movies). And then, later, an Omega guy, he is picking up something different now. In a new novel from Charlie Higson, KING ZERO, our favorite 00 agent is donning a new watch from a much more appropriate origin. Vertex is the brand of watch James Bond wears, and it is entirely appropriate. Something much more aligned with what I argued in my article about what watches James Bond would actually wear.
Cold, blue-grey eyes opened and focused on the Vertex on his bedside cabinet that told him it was not yet seven in the morning. The watch was a slightly battered Cal 59 WWW navigation model with a small crack in the glass. An original wartime model, left to him by a great-uncle who’d been part of the 6th Airborne Division that had secured Pegasus Bridge on D-Day – Charlie Higson, KING ZERO
The perfect choice
Why is this the perfect watch? The simple answer is that James Bond is a field agent and this is a field watch. Rolex and Omega are nice and all, but they are luxury watches that nobody in their right mind would wear on a mission to get into scuffles. Who wants to ruin a $12K watch? Especially if you are operating on a government salary. But the deeper answer is that Bond is a soldier. Before he began taking orders from M, he was in the military. And soldiers are attached to their gear. Now, this is a gift from his great-uncle, according to the book, so it is possible he didn’t wear that in the service. But, the crack in the glass begs the question: Is that from World War II and his great-uncle storming the beach? Or is it from his own exploits for Her Majesty?
It doesn’t specify which model the Vertex is, but the M36 is the recreation of the watch originally issued to the soldiers, so that is a fair guess. At the moment, it is sold out, but check it out and keep an eye out for something that truly feels like a real James Bond watch.
This book doesn’t drop for another month in the United States, so thanks to my friend Ryan Holt (analyzethismrbond on Instagram) for keeping me and all the other Bond fanatics up to date.
