THE CURATED EDITION.
Reportage / Glendale, California
In Glendale, Omega has staged its first exhibition to set James Bond and Spectre face to face: more than twenty original props, six watches from the Omega Museum and a new Seamaster Diver 300M collection that lets the wearer choose a side.
WATCHES & CULTURE
A hero is only as good as his enemy. Bond is Bond because, on the other side of the table, there is an organisation capable of turning every second into a matter of life and death. Omega, which has put a watch on 007’s wrist since 1995, has decided that the enemy deserves the same light.
Since 5 October, the Omega boutique in Glendale, California, has housed Timeless Adversaries: James Bond and Spectre, the house’s first exhibition to place the agent and the criminal organisation that pursues him on equal footing. “This time we wanted Spectre to have the same space,” says Raynald Aeschlimann, Omega’s President and CEO.
The idea is architectural before it is narrative. Two archives, built as corridors of minimal shelving, stand opposite one another: Bond’s world on one side, Spectre’s on the other. Both lead into a single room, where the watches are shown together. The visitor walks the conflict before arriving at the objects that measure it.
More than twenty original props from seven films, from GoldenEye (1995) to No Time to Die (2021), fill the shelves. On Bond’s side: his passports from Skyfall and Spectre, his identification pass, cufflinks bearing his initials, the note reading “RUN” left for him in Quantum of Solace, and the key fob of the DB5 from No Time to Die. On the other side: the octopus ring worn by members of Spectre, and several versions of the bionic eye made for Daniel Craig’s final film.
The spectacle here is quiet. These are small, almost domestic things, and that is precisely why they work. Spy cinema is rarely decided by the grand gesture; it turns on a detail the audience understands only later. Out of the edit, without music or movement, a passport or a ring must hold its own, and it does. For those who prefer taking part to looking, an AI photo booth offers two moods, Bond or Spectre, and produces a single portrait. Every visitor picks a side.
In the final room, six pieces have left the Omega Museum in Biel/Bienne to trace Bond’s Seamaster between 2002 and 2015. Two are the watches he wore on screen: the 2006 Seamaster Diver 300M from Casino Royale, a subtle update of the model first seen in GoldenEye, and the 2012 Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M from Skyfall.
The other four are limited editions, each with a production run that ends in 007: the Seamaster 300M of 2002, marking forty years of Bond and Die Another Day, in 10,007 pieces; the Diver 300M of 2006 for Casino Royale, also 10,007; the Planet Ocean 600M of 2012 for Skyfall, 5,007; and the Aqua Terra 150M of 2015, released ahead of Spectre, 15,007. The arithmetic is part of the pleasure.
“This time we wanted Spectre to have the same space.”
Raynald Aeschlimann, President and CEO, Omega
The exhibition accompanies the Seamaster Diver 300M James Bond and Spectre collection, launched on 5 October. There are six 42 mm watches, all driven by the same Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 8806: three carry Bond’s mark, three carry Spectre’s. One body, two identities.
The two stainless-steel editions, sold individually on brushed mesh bracelets, divide the territory clearly. Bond’s has a grade 5 titanium bezel ring and a blue aluminium dial engraved by laser with a wave pattern. Spectre’s has a black ceramic bezel ring and a blackened, grained dial. Each signs its allegiance on the rotor: the gun barrel for Bond, the Spectre emblem for his enemy.
At the top of the collection sit two sets, one for each side, each limited to 77 numbered examples. Every set pairs a steel watch, numbered on a plate at 9 o’clock, with a model in platinum-gold on a leather strap, its 18k white gold dial finished in a PVD gradient: blue with a gun-barrel pattern for Bond, dark grey with an octopus motif for Spectre. The watches in a set are not sold separately. Each box holds a NATO strap and changing tool, cufflinks, a cord bracelet, a loupe, a leather travel pouch, a card holder and a certificate. Even the pouches take sides: blue for one, black for the other.
Omega frames the collection around a simple idea. Bond is defined by duty, discipline and loyalty. Spectre stands for other instincts: independence, self-interest, the freedom to operate without the same constraints. The question the house leaves with the buyer is the one the exhibition asks every visitor: which side will you choose?
There is history behind the symmetry. For Spectre, in 2015, Omega made its first watch designed specifically for a Bond film, the Seamaster 300 Spectre. Eleven years later, the house returns the organisation to the vitrine, this time not as a supporting player. Only a brand with three decades of repertoire can afford to tell the story from the other side.
There is a time for the hero and a time for the one who challenges him. In Glendale, both keep the same hour.
Details and further reading: Timeless Adversaries: James Bond and Spectre, Omega Glendale Boutique, 716 Americana Way, Space E-104, Glendale, California. Until 8 November 2026; Monday to Saturday 11:00 to 20:00, Sunday 12:00 to 18:00. Free entry, no appointment needed. The Seamaster Diver 300M James Bond and Spectre collection is available at Omega boutiques and omegawatches.com. Exhibition · Collection
GABRIEL SILVEIRADO, FOR WAYFARER.
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