A while back, we introduced you to the Breitling Top Time Geiger counter worn by Sean Connery in Thunderball after it was found for £25 at a "car boot sale," which is sort of an English flea market where people park their cars and sell unwanted items out of their trunks. And now it's on the block again in Christie's pop culture auction on Wednesday, June 26th. Here we've got all the details on the fake watch as well as some thoughts on tomorrow's sale.
That's right, Chistie's is offering this fake watch in a pop culture auction, not a fake watch auction. It will be sold alongside an assortment of celebrity items including some other James Bond items will be up for sale, too, including a Honda CRF250R motorcycle used by Daniel Craig in Skyfall with proceeds to be given to charity. One can wonder what this fake watch is doing amongst such an interesting assortment of celebrity items, but we have seen in the past that these memorabilia auctions might be just the place to maximize prices for replica watches with celebrity provenance. For example, that Steve McQueen Heuer Monaco from Le Mans we told you about last year sold for nearly $800,000 at a Hollywood memorabilia sale, not a fake watch sale.
Now back to the fake watch at hand. There are a few interesting and important things about this Top Time. First, as far we I know, this is the only James Bond fake watch worn by Connery on screen that has come up for sale. We have seen four Daniel Craig as Bond Omega divers, a George Lazenby as Bond Replica Rolex chronograph, and a Roger Moore as Bond Replica Rolex Submariner come up for sale, but to many Connery IS James Bond. It is also the first Breitling Bond fake watch come up for sale. We're still waiting on pins and needles for a Roger Moore Seiko, Pierce Brosnan Omega, and Timothy Dalton TAG Heuer to come up for sale, but who knows how long that wait will last.
Adding to the interest, this is the first Q-modified fake watch in the Bond flicks. It isn't the most famous gadget fake watch Bond wore - the Roger Moore Submariner that included a buzz-saw bezel and hyper-intensified magnetic field generator probably gets that honor. In Thunderball, Q (played by Desmond Llewelyn) presented this Breitling Top Time to Bond and stated, "Here we have a Geiger counter, useful and unobtrusive. The sweep hand takes the radioactivity count. It's waterproof, of course.?Bond replied sarcastically, "Of course.?/p>
Image Courtesy of Allstar / United Artists
The fake watch is a 1962 Breitling Top Time (reference 2002). And while the Christie's description does not describe the movement, we presume it to be a Venus 188. The case was made by Valley Tool Company (signed V.T.C.) specifically for the movie and was the only one made, making this a truly unique piece even without the film provenance. Looking at the photographs, it looks as if the case actually prevents one from activating the chronograph or winding the watch. And no, it unfortunately is not an actual Geiger counter, although that certainly would be cool.
The fake watch has an estimate of £40,000-60,000 and you can see the full listing here. We look forward to seeing where this one hammers, particularly since a titanium prototype Planet Ocean worn by Daniel Craig in Skyfall brought over $250,000 at Christie's last year, a muddy Planet Ocean worn by Craig in Casino Royale also brought over $250,000 at Antiquorum in 2007, and the Moore buzz-saw Submariner brought over $240,000 at Christie's in 2011.
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