The watchmaker says Daniel Craig helped design the model he wears as 007 in the new film “No Time to Die.”
The Omega Seamaster worn by Daniel Craig in the new Bond film “No Time to Die” was designed in part by the actor.
It has been 25 years since James Bond first wore an Omega watch.
And in April, when Daniel Craig returns to screens as the legendary spy in “No Time To Die,” it will be the ninth time that 007 has worn a watch made by the Swiss company.
This time, Omega announced, Mr. Craig helped design the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition he wears in the film. The watch is made of lightweight titanium and has what the brand describes as tropical brown detailing.
Over the last quarter of a century, the Bond franchise has become a well-known vehicle for product placement.
Omega declined to say whether that is part of its current Bond arrangement, issuing a statement saying, in part, that its partnership with Eon Productions, which produces the series, “and the James Bond franchise has never been about paid placement.”
According to Lindy Hemming, the costume designer who chose the first Bond Omega (a Seamaster 300M Quartz for Pierce Brosnan’s “Goldeneye” Bond debut in 1995), commercial considerations were not part of that initial decision.
“There was no product placement incentive in 1995 whatsoever,” she said in a recent interview. “I went to them, and of course they were interested. But it was no more than helping us. They gave us the watches for nothing.”
Ms. Hemming had put Mr. Brosnan in Italian tailoring from Brioni, rather than Savile Row suits, and wanted a watch to match.
“There hadn’t been a Bond for a few years and I was given the opportunity to rethink him,” she said. “I wanted him to be more modern and European.”
In the Ian Fleming books, Bond wears a Rolex (as did Sean Connery, George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton in several 007 incarnations). But by 1995, “the Rolex watch had become rather flash,” Ms. Hemming said. “Rolex was part of a city boy culture. It didn’t seem appropriate to Bond at that moment.”
The Omega Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition is made of lightweight titanium and has what the company calls “tropical brown” details.
Ms. Hemming said she had remembered friends of her father’s who were former Navy men and wore Omegas. “They were gentlemen, good guys, ready for anything,” she said. “Omega was perfect for a naval commander who dived and rescued people.”
The Seamaster 300M Quartz’s blue-wave dial also was a factor in her decision, she said.
Bond product placement deals are now big business. In the 2012 film “Skyfall,” which took in more than $1 billion worldwide at the box office, Mr. Craig was seen drinking Heineken. The BBC reported that the beer manufacturer was believed to have paid $45 million to be in the film and to market its products around the association.