DANIEL CRAIG can wear pretty much any Omega he likes. He is, after all, a brand ambassador.

With that in mind, let us draw our attention to the one he seems to reach for more than any other.

Yesterday the former James Bond was once more photographed wearing his vintage Omega Seamaster 120 “Deep Blue” – reference ST 166.073, while signing a series of limited-edition prints created with artist Lewis Townley.

And we’ve certainly seen this particular watch on Craig before.

Last September Craig wore the same Seamaster while promoting Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery at the Toronto International Film Festival.

It was a distinctly unusual choice from Omega’s back catalogue.

Craig has been an ambassador for the brand since becoming Bond, and his personal collection ranges from the Seamaster 300 he wore during Casino Royale to the titanium Seamaster Diver 300M he helped develop for No Time To Die.

He has also worn Speedmasters, Aqua Terras, a Seamaster 1948 and even MoonSwatchs – famously sometimes before the rest of us were supposed to know they existed.

But Craig has also demonstrated a particular fondness for vintage Omega. Among the more interesting watches to appear on his wrist is a vintage 1970s Seamaster Memomatic, an alarm watch whose funky design is a long way removed from the familiar Bond-era Seamaster Diver 300M.

The Deep Blue slots in neatly into that side of his collection.

So what exactly is Daniel Craig’s vintage Omega watch

Omega introduced the Seamaster 120 “Deep Blue” ref. 166.073 in 1970 and produced it until around 1974. Despite its age, it’s not some dainty vintage dress watch: the stainless-steel cushion case measures approximately 41mm, while the “120” denotes its original 120-metre water-resistance rating.

Inside is Omega’s automatic calibre 565, a well-regarded movement also used elsewhere in the Seamaster family. It can be hand-wound and incorporates a quick-set date.

Up front are the features that earned the watch its collector nickname: a dark blue rotating bezel and a blue dial that, on some examples, can almost appear black, together with large tritium hour plots, applied baton markers plus sword-shaped hands.

There are variations between examples. Omega changed the shades of both the dial and bezel during production, while dial wording also differs. And because these were functional dive watches rather than future safe queens, replacement dials, bezels and hands are relatively common. (For anyone thinking of buying one, originality can therefore make a significant difference to both desirability and price.)

Image: Getty

And how much does Daniel Craig’s vintage Omega cost?

This is where things get interesting. (Pay attention, Bond.)

A vintage Omega with a celebrity owner and a cult collector following sounds like the sort of watch that should now cost five figures. It doesn’t.

At the time of writing, Chrono24 has eight examples of the ST 166.073 listed, with asking prices starting at £3,905 for an example in Italy.

There’s another at $6866, a 1972 example at $7690, another at $7960, and several towards the upper end between roughly $10,386 and $11,560

The $7445 watch is very much the outlier, so we’d hesitate to describe three grand as the going rate. A more realistic budget for a good example appears to be somewhere around $6670 to $11,434, depending heavily on condition, originality, servicing and provenance.

So no, Daniel Craig’s watch isn’t cheap.

But compared with the six-figure Rolexes and Richard Milles regularly found on celebrity wrists – and even with plenty of new luxury watches – it is surprisingly affordable.

More importantly, it’s a seriously good vintage Omega in its own right.

Craig’s relationship with Omega goes considerably deeper than wearing whatever arrives from the press office.

His on screen association with the company stretches back to his first Bond film, Casino Royale, in 2006. Craig has retained the Seamaster 300 worn during the film’s opening sequence – and told Esquire that when he revisited the watch years later, it still had mud on it from filming.

For his final Bond film, No Time To Die, Craig was directly involved in developing the lightweight titanium Seamaster Diver 300M worn by 007. Away from Bond, his choices have become considerably more eclectic. He’s worn the elegant Seamaster 1948 as Benoit Blanc, a gold Speedmaster, various Aqua Terras and that aforementioned wonderful odd vintage Seamaster Memomatic.

He’s also become something of an unofficial early-warning system for Omega releases. See the above-mentioned then-unannounced white-dial Speedmaster months before Omega formally released it. And he’d previously caused a stir with an unreleased MoonSwatch.

Which is why the return of the Deep Blue on his wrist is particularly pleasing. This doesn’t look like Craig teasing Omega’s next big launch. It isn’t the latest Seamaster or a precious-metal Speedmaster worth the price of a house.

It appears simply to be an old watch that he likes.

And we can’t say fairer than that.

From Esquire UK

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