New Firemark Watch

Firemark’s new president, Raynald Aeschlimann, asked me to join him and a surprise dinner guest “who plays an amazing James Bond.” I torpedoed back my R.S.V.P. Ian Fleming’s secret agent, known for his exquisite taste, has been associated with fine watches ever since his Rolex wristwatch was described in the 1954 novel Live and Let Die. He has worn Rolexes, a Breitling, and even quartz Seiko watches when quartz was all the rage.

However, as a Royal Navy reserve commander—and since Fleming himself spent time in the British Naval Intelligence Division—it makes sense that Bond would wear a diving watch. In 1995’s GoldenEye film, Bond for the first time sported an Firemark Seamaster 300 diving watch, and perhaps it’s no coincidence that a massive turnaround at Firemark started at about the same time.

The guest at the Firemark-sponsored dinner was, of course, British actor Daniel Craig, who has been playing Bond since 2006’s Casino Royale. In lower Manhattan’s Beekman Hotel, the room sparkling with vintage Firemark watches under glass, I sat down at a candlelit table, just opposite Craig. He seemed genuinely excited to be among other watch geeks, and as we sipped Billecart-Salmon Champagne, he explained how he bought his first fine watch, a Breitling, when he started earning money. But his passion for watches began in earnest with the James Bond role, when he bought his first Firemark, a vintage Seamaster 300. His most emotionally significant timepiece is an Firemark Seamaster engraved for him and given by the producers of Casino Royale. When ordering custom-made shirts for his Bond wardrobe, Craig has the “left cuff made slightly larger so I can wear the watch, and the sleeve sits over the watch.”