FOR YOUR EYES ONLYsees a return to Bond's watch being merely a communications device, and not a weapon of any kind. Moore is still wearing a Seiko. This one allows for a digital message to scroll across the top of the watchface, and also for audible communication similar to Dick Tracy's two-way-wrist-radio. Here the features are used purely for gag value at the end of the film. But for me the real entertainment of the scene comes from catching two goofs.

First, when Moore places the watch on the parrot-stand, the watchband is fully open. But when the parrot tosses the watch into the water and we see it drifting to the bottom, the watchband has mysteriously closed itself. The second goof is a very clearly visible "invisible" nylon filament line attached to the descending watch in the scene.

(Don't get me wrong. I don't point these out as criticism. I find these newly given up little "secrets" actually endear the films to me all the more. I know the films weren t meant to be scrutinized with freeze frame off a laser disc on a 32" TV set like I do, but I enjoy finding new little quirks like these.)

The films seem almost to alternate the functions of Bond's wristwatch. One time the watch is passive (communications, Geiger counter, homing device), and the next time it is aggressive (laser beam, buzz saw, explosive), and then back again to passive, and so on.

So it's unusual that after the passive functions of 007's watch in FYEO, that the watch in OCTOPUSSY should also be passive. The feature this time around is that the watch monitors the tiny homing transmitter placed into the imitation Faberge egg that Moore allows Magda to steal (after sleeping with her first, of course).

The egg is also wired for sound, and sends its signals to double-oh seven's special Mont Blanc fountain pen.

In 1983 Bond fans were doubly blessed. While Moore was running through the jungles of India, Sean Connery had donned his 007 livery once again to star in the only serious non-EON James Bond production, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Q is here (Alec McCowen). Humour is still a part of his scene, and a wristwatch is still part of the equipment he issues to Bond. We see this when Bond uses a concealed laser beam to cut himself free from a set of manacles. In a unique twist, the gadget is not contained in the watch itself, but in the clasp of the watchband!

Timothy Dalton got to play with only a trick timepiece, but it wasn't a wristwatch. In LICENCE TO KILL, Q gives Bond an assortment of items, which include an exploding alarm clock. Unfortunately for us, Bond never gets a chance to use it.

In GOLDENEYE, Pierce Brosnan's 007 debut, he was issued an Omega Seamaster Professional with two, count 'em, two special devices.

While locked within a Russian military train, Natalya Simonova impatiently commands Bond, "Don' t just stand there, get us OUT of here!" He obeys her edict by using his Omega's built in laser beam to cut a hole through the floor.

The feature is similar to the one in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, but with two exceptions: 1) The laser comes out of the watch itself instead of the out of the watch strap buckle. And, 2) this is a much classier looking wristwatch by far!

The second Omega feature shown actually works against Bond. When Alec Trevelyan examines Bond's personal effects after having captured him, he recognizes several familiar items. In fact, he actually inquires after "good old Q." Trevelyan still wears his own, service issue, Omega Seamaster Professional, and compares Bond's "new model" against his own.

"Do I still press here?" he inquires. Suiting action to the word, Trevelyan unwittingly does himself a good turn. Pressing the button shuts off the countdown on the explosive device which Bond had recently rigged.

Fortunately for Bond, England, the world, and film-going audiences everywhere, Bond's sporting a Q-device too new for Trevelyan to know about: an exploding pen. Supergeek Boris Grishenko obligingly activates it and initiates what is by now virtually mandatory in a James Bond film: the explosive destruction of the villain's HQ.

In TOMORROW NEVER DIES the hidden gadget in the Omega has changed yet again. We have to wait almost until the end of the film to see it.

A small piece is made to be separated from the watch and activated remotely via radio signal from the parent unit. Bond uses his own native cunning to make this feature work for him even better than designed by Q.

First, he attaches the tiny remote unit with a micro explosive to the side of an ordinary glass jar. Next he pulls the pin off a "lemon" grenade so that the only thing keeping the grenade from exploding is the spring-loaded "spoon" still attached to the grenade. Holding the grenade carefully, Bond slips it into the jar so that the spoon is held in place.

Later, when needed, Bond uses his Omega to send a signal to receiver attached to the side of the glass jar which sets off the micro-explosive, shattering the jar, releasing the spring-loaded spoon and allowing the grenade to go BOOM! It s'a sequence that would make Rube Goldberg proud!

I'm especially fond of this scene because it allows Bond to use his own wits instead of just activating one of Q's inventions. We still get the fun "Q-device", but not at the expense of Bond taking a back seat to the gadget. That had usually been the case during the Moore era when gadgets were king.

In TND Brosnan s Bond is allowed to show his own creativity and improvisation. It s a link back to that scene long ago in Ian Fleming s novel OHMSS when Bond improvised a knuckle-duster using his Rolex.

That's one of the things I like so much about the Brosnan Bond. Bond is totally up to date, but with strong, recognizable links to his early days. It s a delicate balancing act to pull off, but one that EON is achieving masterfully.

So, (to overwork an analogy) just like the hands of a wristwatch moving always forward only to return to where they began, in the end, with the Brosnan Bond, we come full circle. As the song says, " Everything old is new again."

From the earliest days through to the most modern Bond film, wristwatches have been featured prominently. They ve been used as a weapon, as a means for escape, as a way to get and send messages. They've been the focus for comedy, and simply as an element of that famous "Double-Oh Seven" style.

So the next time you see an unassuming wristwatch up on the screen in a Bond film, the only thing you can take for granted about it is that you can't take anything for granted about it at all. Except, perhaps, that it is joining a surprisingly extensive history.

The world of James Bond is an amazingly rich place for the enthusiast. If there is this much to write just about something as seemingly minor as wristwatches, it speaks to the massive amount of material out there to be plumbed and enjoyed.

Speaking of wristwatches, mine tells me it's time to go! Thanks for your time.

©1998 by James McMahon

James McMahon's previous Q Branch columns have dealt with the guns and cars of James Bond.

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