Watches made famous by Cousteau and Bond

Two wristwatches, made famous by Jacques Cousteau and James Bond, are in the Charterhouse auction of nearly 1,000 lots on Friday, December 14.

“As a child in the late 1960s and early 1970s my world was full of day dreams, Jacques Cousteau with Omega and James Bond with Rolex watches.” said Richard Bromell. “Today we would call this product placement but as a child I just thought it all pretty wonderful.”

The Omega Seamaster was the first professional divers’ watch produced. Developed in conjunction with international marine diver, explorer and conservationist Jacques Cousteau, the Omega Seamaster was capable at working at depths up to 600 meters or 2000 feet. With its large red button, to enable the diver to set the bezel for decompression timings, this rare Omega was bought new by an RAF officer in 1975 who as well as flying aeroplanes, was also involved with the shallow water recovery team.

At half the cost of the Omega Seamaster professional wristwatch in the 1970s was another iconic wristwatch, the Rolex Submariner.

The Rolex Submariner first appeared on Sean Connery’s wrist in the 1962 Bond film Dr No. The Submarine being sold by Charterhouse was made in 1997 and comes to auction with its original box and papers.

Both watches come from a Somerset collector who has decided to thin out a few watches. The Omega, despite being the rarer of the two watches and originally costing twice as much as the Rolex, is estimated at £4,000-£4,500 and the Rolex Submariner £4,500-£5,000.

Viewing for this auction, which also includes a huge selection of model trains, cars, stamps, coins, militaria, clocks and other collector’s items is 10am-5pm on Thursday, December 12 or you can view all the lots on www.charterhouse-auction.com Charterhouse

01935 812277 www.charterhouse-auction.com