Jake's Rolex Watch Blog has often been referred to by its readers as The Bible Of Rolex. I have never referred to it this way, but I believe readers do because I specialize in separating the fact from the fiction in Rolex folklore and I am happy to once again do so.
Let's go back to the origin of this story. In the first two James Bond Movies, Sean Connery played James Bond and he wore a Rolex Submariner as Ian Flemming intended him to. In 1964 Sean Connery once again played James Bond in Goldfinger as seen in the screenshot below.
In Goldfinger there are several scenes where there are close-ups of his Submariner Big Crown Rolex Submariner [Reference 6538]. This Submariner had a big crown and no crown guards. Sean Connery also wears this watch on a nylon diving strap as you can see in the next two photos. For some reason the strap is 16mm and does not properly fit between the 20mm lugs on his Rolex.
There has been much speculation about why the strap is only 16mm and I believe it is because Rolex watches were unusually large at the time and the producers of the movie could not find a 20mm nylon strap, so they used a 16mm which was as close as they could get. Ironically Golfinger was filmed before NATO straps were developed.
Why a Nylon strap? In the opening scene in Goldfinger, James has to wear his Rolex Submariner over his diving suit as seen in the photo below. When I first started writing about this watch, I pointed out in previous articles that the strap consisted of three colors, Dark Navy Blue; Dark Olive and fine Burgundy stripes as seen in the photos above and below.
The Fake James Bond Watchstrap
For many years people have been selling the strap seen below as the James Bond NATO. The supreme irony is NO James Bond ever wore a NATO strap in a James Bond movie and the strap below is the wrong colors and wrong pattern. The strap below is grey and black with 5 total stripes. The Real Bond Strap is 9 stripes and is Navy Blue, Olive and Burgundy.
The Most Supreme Irony
The most supreme irony is Daniel Craig, who currently plays James Bond wears a Rolex Big Crown 6538 that was given to him by the current producer of the James Bond movies, Barbara Broccoli–who is the daughter of the original James Bond producer, Albert "Cubby" Broccoli.
As you can see Daniel Craig is wearing the 6538 Submariner "Big Crown" on his wrist below on a grey and black NATO strap. What makes this so ironic is the myth became the truth and even Daniel Craig fell for it. In other words, NO James Bond actor in history ever wore a NATO strap and Sean Connery never wore a grey and black nylon strap.
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