OMEGA James Bond Limited Edition Set

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The recent release of OMEGA’s Seamaster Diver 300M Limited Edition, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, has proven to be an instant hit with 007 fans and watch collectors around the world. Now, to add even more choice to the collection, the brand has launched a special Seamaster Diver 300M James Bond Limited Edition Set. Just 257 of the sets have been created, comprised of two unique watches inside a Globe-Trotter™ suitcase, which has been bound by black and grey NATO-inspired straps.

The first timepiece features a stainless steel case and black rubber strap. On the side of the case is an 18K yellow gold plate engraved with each Limited Edition number, while the bezel is black ceramic with a white enamel diving scale.

The second model, in 18K yellow gold, sports a black rub­ber strap with an 18K yellow gold buckle. On this watch, the case plate with each Limited Edition number is in 18K white gold, and the black ceramic bezel features a diving scale in OMEGA Ceragold™.

Both watches feature a spiral-brushed black ceramic dial with a special black PVD coating and a very distinctive touch: a laser-engraved gun-barrel design. There is also a hidden number 50 within the Super-LumiNova of the 10 o’clock index – a reference to the 50th anniversary of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).

Additionally, the watches include 18K yellow gold hands and in­dexes, with a marker at 12 o’clock, inspired by the Bond family coat-of-arms. This crest is also metallised in gold and black on the sapphire crystal of each watch’s caseback.

As well as having the superb precision of the Master Chronometer Calibre 8806/8807, owners will receive an additional stainless steel bracelet, as well as a NATO strap for each model, with buckles in matching materials.

OMEGA has been worn on the wrist of James Bond in every film since GoldenEye in 1995. For almost 25 years, the brand has been proud to equip the spy for his most famous on-screen missions. 

Focus Of The Week: Patrice

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Murderous and menacing, Skyfall (2012)’s Patrice (Ola Rapace) is a ghost mercenary — he has no known residence or country of origin — hired by cyber terrorist Silva (Javier Bardem) to steal a top secret MI6 hard drive containing the names of almost every NATO agent concealed in global terrorist organisations. He is a man of mystery who remains an enigma, even in death.

Bond (Daniel Craig) first encounters Patrice in Istanbul. The assassin kills MI6 operative Ronson (Bill Buckhurst), steals the hard drive and flees in a black Audi. Bond and field agent Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) give chase in a Land Rover. After Bond forces Patrice to crash the car in Eminonu Square, Patrice leaps out and seizes a police motorbike and speeds across the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar. Bond, riding on a street trader’s bike, follows in hot pursuit.

Following in the Land Rover, Moneypenny nearly stops Patrice at a road bridge but Patrice abandons his bike and leaps over a bridge onto a moving train. Following suit, Bond performs a spectacular leap and clings onto the speeding train. Out of ammunition, Bond boards a Caterpillar excavator loaded onto a flatbed truck. Patrice uncouples the truck carrying Bond and the excavator. Wounded in the shoulder by one of Patrice’s bullets, Bond rams the excavator’s bucket into the carriage carrying the killer, runs along the vehicles arm and leaps into the gaping hole made by the bucket — in true 007 style, he straightens his cuffs on landing.

Bond and Patrice continue their tussle as the train rapidly approaches a tunnel. Moneypenny is still in pursuit but runs out of road. With one last chance to stop Patrice, she — on M (Judi Dench)’s command — shoots at Patrice but hits 007, sending him plummeting into the water as Patrice escapes with the hard drive.

Shrapnel from Bond’s wounds later reveal Patrice’s bullet was a depleted military-grade uranium shell. Patrice is only one of three men worldwide known to use such bullets. The CIA have been searching for Patrice over the murder of the Yemeni ambassador and believe he will be in Shanghai. M dispatches Bond to retrieve the hard drive and uncover the mastermind behind the theft. Bond picks up Patrice’s trail at Shanghai Airport and follows him to the 67th floor of a Shanghai skyscraper. Bond watches as Patrice assembles a sniper rifle and assassinates a man who is admiring a painting in an adjacent apartment. Bond attacks and disarms Patrice, their fierce hand-to-hand combat ending with Bond dangling Patrice from the skyscraper. 007 is desperate to discover who holds the NATO agent’s list and who is bankrolling Patrice but the assassin chooses to fall to his death — silent to the last. 

Focus Of The Week: Aston Martin Flip

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The Aston Martin DBS car flip provides perhaps the most heart-stopping moment in Casino Royale (2006). Discovering treasury officer and new love Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) has been kidnapped by terrorist banker Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), James Bond (Daniel Craig) sets off in hot pursuit, speeding through the countryside of Montenegro. Without warning, he is confronted by Vesper tied up in the middle of the road so takes evasive action, forcing his Aston Martin DBS to barrel roll into the surrounding woods.  

The DBS wasn’t scheduled to launch until the following year so Aston Martin’s prototype workshop hand-built two cars for use in close-ups, and three stunt cars to participate in the stunt. While the main unit were filming Bond’s destruction of Miami airport, second unit director Alexander Witt assembled his team in Millbrook Proving Ground, a vehicle testing centre in Bedfordshire, England, to capture the car flip. Having set up a ramp and tested it with cars which approximated the DBS’s weight, Stunt Coordinator Gary Powell and stunt driver Adam Kirley discovered a snag — the Aston Martin wouldn’t roll over.

To help save the stunt, the crew raised the ramp to 18 inches without success, then attempted it at almost two feet high, with Kirley hitting the ramp at 80mph. The $200,000+ car took off, levelled out and landed on a mannequin of Vesper laid out for the shot. As a remedy, Special Effects Supervisor Chris Corbould and his crew fitted the car with an air cannon that utilised pressurised nitrogen to fire a ram out of the bottom of the car and flip it at exactly the right moment. When Kirley triggered the cannon, this time it rolled. 

“We were going to be happy with a couple of rolls, maybe three at a push,” remembered Kirley. “As I hit the button the car flipped, landed on its roof and then started to roll. I could feel that we were going for quite a few rolls, so it was just a case of holding on for the ride.”

The stunt not only became one of the most spectacular in the series’ history, it also inadvertently set a new world record — the car rolled seven times, confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records as the most cannon rolls ever completed in a car.

No Time To Die To Feature New Defender

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No Time To Die is the first movie to feature Land Rover’s New Defender it was announced today. The New Defender, will appear in a chase sequence and has been tested by the 007 expert stunt team in the most extreme off-road conditions, demonstrating its unstoppable nature. Footage captured during filming of the upcoming movie gives a unique, behind-the-scenes view of stunt coordinator Lee Morrison and stunt driver Jessica Hawkins at work.

Lee Morrison, James Bond Stunt Coordinator, said: “Designing and coordinating the action sequences for the Bond franchise requires a non-compromising mindset. We needed an unstoppable vehicle to help us battle against the elements, steep descents and river crossings so we chose the new Defender. I’m beyond impressed that the Defender is not only back but much, much better!” 

Land Rover’s design team worked closely with Special Effects and Action Vehicles Supervisor Chris Corbould on the specification of the Defenders in the film. Based on the Defender X model in Santorini Black, with darkened skid pans, 20in dark finish wheels and professional off-road tyres, they were the first Defenders to be built at Jaguar Land Rover’s new production facility in Nitra, Slovakia.

Richard Agnew, Global Communications Director for Land Rover, said: “No Time To Die is a brilliant way to showcase the New Defender’s capabilities in the latest jaw-dropping James Bond car chase. It’s been hugely exciting to continue our relationship with EON Productions and work with their teams to deliver a spectacular sequence.”

Britain’s biggest vehicle manufacturer has a long-standing partnership with EON Productions on the Bond films, which began in 1983 when a Range Rover Convertible appeared in Octopussy. Alongside the Defenders, No Time To Die also features the Range Rover Sport SVR, Series III Land Rover and Range Rover Classic.

Champagne Bollinger Celebration

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Champagne Bollinger last night hosted an event at the Hôtel de Crillon, to mark the 40th anniversary of their partnership with 007. Producer Michael G. Wilson attended as the guest of honour. The evening paid tribute to the shared history of the two brands dating back to 1979, when Champagne Bollinger became the Official Champagne of 007 upon the release of Moonraker. The occasion was marked with the global product launch of ‘The Moonraker Luxury Limited Edition’, the latest product offering from Champagne Bollinger to commemorate the 40 year partnership. 

No Time To Die: The Making Of The Film

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Titan Books have announced they are publishing the official making of book for No Time To Die. This lavish coffee table book takes readers behind the scenes of the 25th official James Bond film and reveals the locations, characters, gadgets, weapons, and cars of No Time To Die with exclusive on-set photography, concept art, costume designs, and more, accompanied by cast and crew interviews.

Written by New York Times best-selling author Mark Salisbury, No Time To Die: The Making of the Film is set to publish in hardback on 14 April 2020, priced at $50 and £39.99.

Focus Of The Week: Spectre’s Day of the Dead scene

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James Bond has visited Mexico before — it provided the colourful backdrop for his revenge mission in Licence To Kill (1989) — but in Spectre (2015) it becomes the focus for a thrilling pre-credits sequence based around the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead (Dia de las Muertos). As producer Barbara Broccoli put it: “I think this sequence is so spectacular that it will be up there as one of the greatest pre-title sequences we have ever done.”

For director Sam Mendes, returning to 007 after Skyfall (2012), the Day of the Dead ceremony ties in very closely with the thematic ideas of the story. “The film is about Bond (Daniel Craig) being haunted by a person he thought was long dead,” Mendes observed, adding, “I wanted that combination of sinister and celebratory that you can only get with something like the Day of the Dead. When the film opens, it’s almost like the perfect mission and everything is going to plan but then there’s the game-changing moment.”

On March 20, 2015, the Spectre crew mounted a full-on street celebration involving 1500 extras playing revellers, all with a make-up call of 4.15am — hair designer Zoe Tahir made wigs of wool to make the dancers look like peg dolls, giving the scene a timeless texture. Production designer Dennis Gassner worked very closely with Mexican experts to, as he put it, “make sure it was all grounded in reality.”

Closing down the City’s main Avenue and Zócalo Square meant co-ordination with the presidential palace, government security and the army. With the streets filled with musicians, puppeteers and different performance acts, the first shot was captured at 2.08pm.

“People were in the streets until five in the afternoon doing the same thing over and over again,” recalled Mendes. “I thought they would mutiny but if anything they got more enthusiastic as the day went on. We had live musicians and there was a sense of party about it, which is what you want but is so rarely achieved on a movie set.”

Adding to the complexity of the sequence Mendes envisioned opening Spectre with one continuous shot that follows Bond as he tracks an assassin through a Mexican hotel, up an elevator through different rooms and across rooftops. The use of a single shot is to immerse the viewer in the drama of Bond’s mission. As Mendes explained, “I wanted the audience to be dropped right into the middle of a very specific, very atmospheric and very rich environment.” To capture Bond’s journey across balconies, a camera track system stretched across four buildings, a 50 ft. crane allowing the camera to stay parallel with Daniel Craig on the rooftop.

Bond’s perfect mission goes awry when he triggers an explosive device that destroys the hotel, causing the building he is standing on to collapse floor by floor. The explosion itself was created in the safety of Pinewood Studios by special effects supervisor Chris Corbould.

“We built a four storey building and we had a big weight on a track that went through a ceiling and all the floors collapsed on hydraulics,” said Corbould. “We worked on it for eight months and it is probably one of the longest rigs that we have ever designed and certainly one of the most complicated things we have ever done.”

Focus Of The Week: Spectre’s Jaguar C-X75

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The streets of Rome provide the setting for the first showdown between James Bond (Daniel Craig) and SPECTRE henchman Hinx (Dave Bautista). Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) spots Bond has infiltrated the secret meeting and dispatches Hinx, to go after him. Bond evades his captors and speeds off in an Aston Martin DB10 with Hinx in hot pursuit in his Jaguar C-X75. What follows is a high-speed race through the streets of Ancient Rome in the most modern of supercars.

Jaguar have a long relationship with the James Bond series —Jaguar XKR duelled with the Aston Martin Vanquish on the ice in Die Another Day (2002) — but Spectre’s car chase posed different challenges. As Special Effects Supervisor Chris Corbould said, “Both vehicles were kit cars so unlike the previous Vanquish or XKR we couldn’t just go down to the factory and pull five gear boxes off the shelf. Everything was bespoke which made it much more challenging.”

On February 19 2015, the Spectre crew began shooting the exciting car chase through the cobbled streets and alongside the river Tiber in Rome. Jaguar supplied seven cars to the filmmakers. “Three staggered crews working 24 hours doing the repairs,” recalled Corbould. “Every night the cars would be jumping and landing at 70mph so we had to have them all turned around ready to go the next day.”

“It’s one of those scenes that’s going to be very iconic,” observed Dave Bautista. “Just with the two cars racing through the streets of Rome – I mean, how often do you see that? It’s one of those things you only see in a James Bond film.”

Daniel Craig Designs Aston Martin DBS

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Luxury department store Neiman Marcus has unveiled their 2019 Fantasy Gift guide, the 93rd edition of the Christmas book. This year’s guide will include an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera designed by Daniel Craig. Available in a run of seven each limited-edition car comes in inky blue and features a powerful twin-turbo 5.2-liter V12 engine. Each customer will also receive one of only seven limited-edition, all-platinum Seamaster Diver 300M OMEGA timepieces – featuring a unique hand-engraved case back – plus tickets to the world premiere of No Time To Die, the 25th installment in the James Bond series.

With the purchase of each 007 Fantasy Gift, a donation will be made to support the work of the Opportunity Network – an organisation that works with students from historically and systematically underrepresented communities to harness their skills and passions to reach their college and career goals.

Secret Cinema Presents Casino Royale

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Since June 2019, London has played host to Secret Cinema’s immersive production of Casino Royale. The four-month show entertained over 120,000 people, placing the film back in the UK Top Ten Box Office during the entirety of its run.

The show transformed a 70,000 square foot warehouse in East London into a multi-layered set where audience members embarked on a mission. High octane stunts and set pieces were brought-to-life by actors, including parkour and freerunning choreographed by Sebastien Foucan, who played Mollaka in the film. 

During the London show Secret Cinema announced its first international expansion into China. Together with SMG Live they will launch with the current UK show, SMG Live presents Secret Cinema’s production of Casino Royale, in Shanghai later this year. 

Focus Of The Week: Solange

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The wife of terrorist go-between Alex Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian), in Casino Royale (2006), Solange (Caterina Murino) has an interesting link to James Bond history. In Ian Fleming’s short story 007 In New York, Bond plans to meet a girlfriend named Solange who works in the old Abercrombie & Fitch. Her name may have been the inspiration for Bond’s first love interest in Casino Royale.  

Solange lives a life of luxury but is trapped in a desperately sad life married to a cold, evil man, even if she doesn’t know the details or extent of his nefarious activities. She plays a vital part in helping Bond stop a terrorist attack on a Skyfleet prototype aircraft in Miami, which her husband is organising on behalf of terrorist Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen).

Solange first sees Bond as he emerges from the surf in Nassau and is instantly attracted to him. The pair actually meet at a poker game where 007 is taking on her husband. When Bond roundly beats Dimitrios — even taking his Aston Martin DB5 — the latter responds coldly to Solange, which catches the secret agent’s attention.

After Solange inadvertently climbs into the Aston Martin, Bond invites her for a drink back at his place (which turns out to be a drive around the hotel courtyard). Enjoying both the attention and a rare spark of humanity in her life, she accepts, unaware that Bond may be only interested in gleaning knowledge about her husband.

During their night together, Solange confesses that she is not happy in her one-sided marriage and life, feeling she has wasted her shot at happiness by getting involved with the wrong men. Their intimate evening is interrupted when Solange receives a call from her husband. Bond learns Dimitrios will be taking the last flight to Miami. He makes a quick exit to stay on Dimitrios’ tail but not before ordering Bollinger and caviar as a parting gift.

After Bond foils the bomb plot, Le Chiffre deduces it was Solange that tipped Bond off about Miami. Bond returns to the Bahamas to find she has been tortured, killed and wrapped in a hammock on the beach by Le Chiffre’s henchman. As Solange’s body is being carried away, M (Judi Dench) suggests to Bond, “I would ask you if you could remain emotionally detached but that’s not your problem, is it, Bond?”. Bond replies with a curt: “No.”