Sean Connery Put the Rolex Submariner on the Map

There's possibly no scene more iconic in 20th-century cinema than the one in which Sean Connery, as agent 007, first speaks the words "Bond James Bond." Seated at a baccarat table in a tuxedo, deftly lighting a cigarette, he sparked, in three words - two of which are the same word - a cultural revolution that has informed every crevice of the zeitgeist, from fashion, to cars, to watches, to travel to, of course, cinema Inextricably linked to Connery's 007 is the watch seen on his wrist throughout the first few Bond films - a Rolex Submariner reference 6538.

Nicknamed the "Big Crown," this early Sub gets ample screen time in 1962's Dr No, though it's in 1964's Goldfinger that the timepiece gets its closeup: Clad in a white dinner jacket, Bond holds a lighter up to the Rolex's radium-coated dial in order to check the time, where we see it on a regimental nylon strap So ingrained is this strap in the Bond mythology - and its blue, green and red colors - that's this particular color combination on a NATO is now often referred to as a "Bond" strap.

Ironically, it wasn't actually a Submariner that graced the literary Bond's wrist, but rather an anonymous "Rolex Oyster." Bond has worn many watches since then - Breitling, Seiko, and of course, Omega - but it's that Sub worn by Connery that has taken on a life of its own, inextricably linking the suave British secret agent and Rolex in the minds of generations of moviegoers Connery never let his portrayal of Bond define the rest of his working life - he went on to win an Oscar for his role in The Untouchables; he played Harrison Ford's father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; he had the best line in Michael Bay's The Rock. . Source