Published October 8, 2026

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Hemming felt Bond’s traditional brand, Rolex, had become too flashy, a part of “city boy culture,” as she put it in an interview with The New York Times. Omega felt different. She knew the brand through its connection with the Royal Navy, as her father and his friends, former Navy men, had preferred Omega watches.

Omega also struck her as more modern and European, attributes she wanted the new Bond to embrace, and the blue wave dial of the then-new Seamaster Professional was a good aesthetic fit for all the blue shirts and suits she was slapping on Brosnan’s 007.

It all came together, and after Goldeneye, Omega did sign up for what has been a very fruitful partnership as the official James Bond watch for the past 30 years and counting. Just this week, the brand dropped six new Bond Seamaster references, including its first intended for the franchise’s villains.

But Omega’s Bond deal apparently only extends to the character’s use on screen. In other words, Bond will only ever wear an Omega in movies and video games, as we saw with the watch Omega created for this year’s 007: First Light.

But what about on the page?

007 creator Ian Fleming published 14 Bond books prior to his death in 1964. Since then, more than 30 official Bond continuation novels have been published by a variety of authors contracted by Ian Fleming Publications, and that doesn’t even include movie novelizations or the countless spinoff books like the Young Bond series.

The latest literary Bond adventure is King Zero, which is set to publish on November 17. Written by Young Bond creator Charlie Higson as his second proper Bond novel, the story centers on Bond’s investigation of a Saudi agent’s murder as he comes face to face with his most challenging villain yet.

The book is already making headlines not for its story, but for the watch Bond wears on his wrist. In the novel, Bond skips the Omega to wear a vintage British field watch from World War II.

The watch in question is a Vertex Cal 59 WWW, one of the so-called “Dirty Dozen” field watches that were commissioned by the British Ministry of Defence for its soldiers during WWII. The “Dirty Dozen” moniker refers to the 12 brands that took part in the program. Vertex was one of the 12, and the only British brand of the bunch. Omega, coincidentally, was another.

According to the blog James Bond Lifestyle, the watch in the novel has a whole backstory. It was apparently given to Bond by his great-uncle, a 6th Airborne Division veteran of WWII who wore the watch on a D-Day mission to secure France’s Pegasus Bridge.

Vertex still exists as a brand today, having been revived in 2015 by Don Cochrane, the great-grandson of original founder Claude Lyons. The closest watch the brand makes today to the Cal 59 WWW is the M36, which has an almost identical design.

On its dial, you’ll notice the Broad Arrow symbol of the MOD, a hallmark of Dirty Dozen watches and a symbol memorably used on the dial of Bond’s most recent movie watch, the Omega Seamaster “No Time to Die.”

Cochrane is quick to point out that he played no role in getting Vertex on the wrist of Bond, telling British GQ that he only found out about the inclusion after the book’s publishers contacted him.

“I definitely don’t want to antagonize Omega; we’re not an official Bond watch,” Cochrane told GQ. “We’re literary Bond’s watch; it’s a whole different thing.”

If you want to be like literary Bond, you can pick up an M36 from Vertex’s website for around $2,900 … once they’re back in stock, that is. As of this writing, the watch is currently sold out. Blame the Bond Effect.