No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond film and the fifth to star Daniel Craig in the lead role, was one of the more notable casualties of an industry turned on its head by COVID-19. Its original release date was November 2019, before personnel changes meant it was delayed to April 2020 – just in time to catch the first wave of the pandemic. This fateful set of circumstances ultimately led to it being pushed back all the way to September 2021. The watch tie-in, however, did get an on-schedule release. In December 2019, Omega revealed the Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition in anticipation of the movie’s release. Outfitted with a retro-looking brown dial and lume to match, it was dateless, had a 42mm titanium case, and was available with either a titanium mesh bracelet (RM37,850) or striped NATO strap (RM33,400). It also has an arrow on the dial at 6 o’clock, the classic mark of British government ownership – which could be said to apply to James Bond, as well.
Craig, whose first brush with Omega was a watch given to him by his father on his 18th birthday, was consulted on the design – but according to him, he was happy to leave it to the manufacture. “There was nothing in the end that I needed to add,” he has said. “There’s the style of it, of course, but it’s also close to a military watch, and you have that heritage with Omega and the British army watches of the second World War. All of those things that I wanted to connect through, they’ve done it. I’m over the moon with it.” He also praised the lightweight nature of titanium, saying that it made long hours of filming that much more comfortable.
That the Seamaster Diver 300M 007 is a diving watch is also something that Craig appreciated. “Where Bond starts in No Time to Die, it makes complete sense,” he explained. “He’s sort of retired. He’s in Jamaica. He’s on his boat. So probably, a little more by accident than design, it worked perfectly. Which is great. The fact it’s a diving watch is great, because we hint that he’s diving in the first part of the movie. Plus the strap, which feels vintage in a kind of 70s way, I really like that kind of touch. Like a 60s, 70s divers watch. It feels like that period.”
