Surprisingly little noise has been made about an anniversary the watch industry should be celebrating: this year marks a century since Rudolph Valentino insisted on wearing his own Cartier Tank in The Son of the Sheik. Released posthumously in 1926, after Valentino died a fortnight before it reached cinemas, the film became the swan song of the silent era’s greatest lover.
Its importance to Cartier? Without doing a thing, the jewellery house received global publicity of the kind you cannot buy. It is believed that more stars of the Golden Era wore Cartier Tanks than any other watch. Fred Astaire, Clark Gable and Cary Grant all had one: the equivalent today of George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise favouring the same watch, though those earlier stars bought the Tanks themselves, then wore them in films.
Product placement has, since Valentino’s gesture, been an incredibly useful tool for the watch industry, especially when timepieces are used in close-up to drive the narrative. Other messages can be sent, too. Take Arnold Schwarzenegger tooling up in the opening credits of Eraser (1996). As Arnie donned the footwear, gadgets and weapons, his Panerai Luminor Marina enjoyed an extended moment in the spotlight. The message was simple: Panerai was a bad-ass piece of kit. Curiously, that watch was gifted to Schwarzenegger by Sylvester Stallone, who had worn it earlier that year in Daylight. Stallone also ordered the personalised Luminor Slytech series, now sought after by collectors.
Left: Rudolph Valentino wearing a Cartier Tank, and Vilma Banky, Son of the Sheik 1926 © PictureLux The Hollywood Archive.
Right: Cartier Tank Must watch small model in steel with black strap, similar to Rudolph Valentino’s.
Two types of watch placement have developed over the past century, with one enjoying greater cachet than the other. The more obvious arrangement involves a deal between the watch brand and the film company, with money changing hands. The best-known is Omega’s long-running association with James Bond, each new film enabling the brand to issue a special Bond-related edition that inevitably sells out.
Omega’s sister marque Hamilton is arguably the champion of film placement, having supplied watches to more than 500 features, starting with Marlene Dietrich’s Shanghai Express (1932). The Frogmen (1951) established Hamilton as a go-to source when a watch had to suit the story: it required a serious diving timepiece, so Hamilton supplied the BUSHIPS, developed for the US Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams. The brand later created watches for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and customised a Khaki Field Watch for Interstellar (2014), releasing a commercial version in 2019.
Watch brands are not forthcoming about how much they pay for screen time. Millions might be involved, though sometimes filmmakers simply ask for a supply of watches. A recent major placement belongs to IWC Schaffhausen, ideal for the Brad Pitt-starring F1 because IWC is already Official Engineering Partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Team. In the film, IWC sponsors the fictional APXGP Team. For F1, IWC collaborated with Pitt on a custom, vintage-style Ingenieur SL, while supplying Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 models for the crew.
Left: Steve McQueen on the set of Le Mans wearing the Heuer Monaco Ref. 1133B – the square-cased chronograph that turned a racing watch into a cinema legend. McQueen photo © Mel Traxel, courtesy of TAG Heuer; watch photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Right: Brad Pitt on location for F1, wearing a bespoke green-dial IWC Ingenieur SL Ref. 1832 – the screen watch that inspired IWC’s modern Ingenieur Automatic 40 Ref. IW328908. Brad Pitt photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images; watch image courtesy of IWC Schaffhausen.
However, the method with greater resonance among enthusiasts takes us back to Valentino: stars choosing the watches themselves. Elvis Presley insisted on wearing his own Hamilton Ventura in Blue Hawaii (1961), a model that remains a bestseller and still inspires Elvis-related editions. Steve McQueen wanted Heuer chronographs for Le Mans because real racers wore Heuers. Jack Heuer obliged with the then-new Monaco, and a cult item was born.
Ironically, the Bond franchise began with suitability rather than commercial imperative. Sean Connery’s Bond needed a watch for Dr No, so producer Cubby Broccoli handed over his own Rolex Submariner, the film’s budget being tight and Bond-mania not yet begun. So powerful was the watch’s presence that the Rolex Submariner Ref 6538 is still known as the “James Bond Submariner”. Fans also know that Bond, in the books, wore a Rolex.
Left: Rolex Submariner Ref. 124060, the current version of the Rolex Submariner Ref. 6538 “Big Crown” worn by Sean Connery in the first James Bond film, Dr. No. As Ref. 124060 features a clean dial and a black bezel, it is considered the best canvas for recreating the classic 007 look.
Right: Hamilton Khaki Field Murph 42mm (2019), a spot-on reproduction of the Khaki Field customised for Interstellar in 2014. It features
the word “Eureka” printed in Morse code on the seconds hand.
Why does the placement of such a small object still matter, a century on from The Son of the Sheik? Cars, clothes and other instantly identifiable items do not need close-ups. Watches are easier to miss. Yet in the age of Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+ and every other platform, viewers can freeze a frame at any point. Watch enthusiasts do exactly that whenever a timepiece appears on the wrist of one of their heroes.
For all those who get it right, some get it wrong. Mercenaries wearing Richard Mille watches in combat, as in Expendables 3 (2014), strains credibility, while one unnamed brand should be ashamed for supplying 2006 models to a film set in 1958, where the watch was a key plot device. They would argue that only drooling watch obsessives noticed. They would be wrong.
In the age of streaming, product placement is too exposed for laziness. Every wristwatch in The Sopranos suited the tastes of New Jersey mafiosi. In Mad Men, the watches worn by Don Draper not only fit the 1950s and 1960s but also tracked his career moves. The point is simple: authenticity matters because audiences now notice when products fit characters and plots.
Author: Ken Kessler
This is an edited extract from the 2026 edition of I-M TIME. To read Ken Kessler’s full feature on the screen watches that shaped modern collecting, secure your copy of I-M TIME 2026 for just £4.25, HERE.
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