The Role of Watches in Epic Action Adventure

Images: Danjaq LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Historical Perspective 

If you spend anytime watching celebrity news you will have noticed that pretty much every celebrity is now seen wearing an expensive wrist watch.  More often than not these celebrities are being paid to wear a specific brand of watch - so called "Brand Ambassadors".   These brand and product placements do not just occur at photo shoots and award ceremonies but also within movies, where watch sales can be directly linked to viewers wanting to share the values and roles of their movie heroes.

Nothing new

Watch brands have been giving their products to celebrities to wear since the beginning of the last century and it is a strategy that has paid off handsomely for some brands.

Superlative Marketing, Officially Certified

It can be said that many of the really big names in watchmaking would not have the prestige they currently enjoy if they had not taken direct action back in the 1960s and 70s by seeking out the most daring adventurers and giving them a free watch, in exchange for appearing in their marketing campaign.   Or getting a member of a certain Swiss watch company's board of directors to also become a director in a space agency did not hurt in getting that watch company's watch selected for space exploration.

Fifty years ago watches were tools that served a specific purpose in helping an adventurer succeed or survive some extreme environment or event.   Wearing such a watch suggested that you too were an adventurer, pushing the limits.

However, times and circumstances have changed. As a society we have stopped looking for heroes to break new frontiers and, instead, we film ourselves seeking excitement in very short duration controlled environments.

Modern people look for a watch brand that gives them perceived status, rather than selecting a tool that will provide vital information under extraordinary situations.  Now it is more likely that a watch is telling the wearer how many strides they have taken since breakfast and how many times their body moved in the night, rather than timing rocket burn duration for reentry into the earth's atmosphere.

Military Marketing: Issued and Supplied to... 

The other marketing trend is for pretty much every brand to claim their watch model is "military".  One should note that, in these times of restricted budgets, modern military units seldom issue watches.  Most watch brands that claim to supply and issue watches are actually much too expensive to have ever won a competitive contract.  One has to use common sense.  A few watches can be given to select officers or friends in a specific military unit and then the watch brand can claim the watches have been requested and supplied to..  whatever unit is involved.   That does not mean the watch is standard issued equipment.   If military provenance is important to you then check if the brand has bid for a competitive contract to supply watches to a national ministry of defence.   Chances are they have not.  Look for a nato stock number and ask which competitive bids they have won to supply watches.   Also do not get fooled just because the expensive watch has the military units logo engraved.  Such engravings do not mean anything.

One final word about military issue - you may be better getting a non military version of a watch as any soldier will tell you issued equipment is provided by the lowest priced supplier and that means short cuts may have been taken in order to keep prices low.

Watches in Bridge of Souls

When I wrote Bridge of Souls I included some "old school" classic watches which I felt reflected the kinds of watches each character would be wearing.   It is to be noted that I kept things realistic in moving the action based characters to the only modern watch that I personally feel qualifies to carry on the history of the real tool watch, the Casio G Shock.

I also was proud to include a British Watch, the Nite MX10 which remained on the wrist of Thomas O'Neill while all other watches failed.  I was delighted that Nite Watches helped in the early stages of the marketing of Bridge of Souls and I remain grateful for their kindness in supporting an unknown author with their first book.


Tavish Stewart - Omega Speedmaster Professional and Casio G Shock

Issac bin Abdul Issuin - Luminox and Suunto

Helen Curren - Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso and Casio G Shock

Mohammed Sek - Casio G Shock

Jeffery Sonnet - Breitling Chronospace Military and Tag Heuer Aquaracer

Nissa Ad-Dajjal - Gold Rolex GMT Master II

Dr Thomas O'Neill - Nite MX10



Read about Ian Flemings Watch - what Bond really wore back in the day. 


Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls

#watches #military #action #omega #rolex