Moonraker Gadgets
Seiko Dynamite
James Bond always has a handy watch and this time he hasn’t really got time to send messages out on strips of plastic, so Q branch have had equally handy strips of TNT inserted instead. For explosion purposes the watch has an expandable length of wire attached to a detonator.
The watch obviously wasn’t called the Seiko Dynamite, it was the Seiko M354 Memory-Bank Calendar – not nearly as good a marketing name, I am sure you would agree. You can pick them up every now and then on eBay for as little as £25. It was an interesting time for James Bond watches. The style and grace of Rolex and Omega watches was replaced by the latest wrist watch technology. It made sense really, digital watches were of the future and would surely replace the cumbersome mechanisms of traditional watches... If they had been developed to include the afore-mentioned style and grace they may have managed it, but once the millennium turned and a 2 replaced a 1 at the beginning, digital watches began to look dated - how designers managed that feat is quite remarkable, but nevertheless, digital watches are now design-led, but in a stylised futuristic fashion. And almost completely aimed at the athletic and sports market. Interestingly, and quite contradictory, digital time-pieces are more popular than ever with under thirties. However, not in the shape of wrist watches, but mobile phones. It is said that young people do not wear watches any more, so in some respects they have taken us even further back in time to the days of pocket watches! Needless to say, Bond is back with Omega. And before we leave for 007’s next mission we should perhaps pause for Q’s most memorable ever line from a James Bond film. Minister for Defence, “My God, what’s Bond doing?” Q, “I think he’s attempting re-entry, sir.”
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Photo: Moonraker 1979 Danjaq, LLC, & United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved
