Ben Affleck wears a Rolex Deepsea

The story goes that a prop master brought Ben Affleck a replica of a period-correct Rolex Submariner before filming, and that Affleck preferred a real Rolex. The Submariner is the dive watch a CIA officer might plausibly have worn in 1979 - it had been on the market for more than two decades by then. Whatever the truth of the anecdote, the watch on Affleck's wrist in Argo (2012) is a Rolex Deepsea reference 116660, released in 2008.

The film is set in 1979. The watch is twenty-nine years too modern.

Affleck plays Tony Mendez, the CIA exfiltration specialist sent into Tehran to rescue six American diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis. The diplomats had escaped the embassy takeover and were hiding at the Canadian Ambassador's residence. Mendez's cover was a fake sci-fi movie called Argo - he flew into Tehran posing as a Hollywood producer scouting locations, with the six set to be his Canadian film crew. Affleck also directed the film.

The Deepsea is Rolex's deep-saturation-dive watch, a 44mm steel case rated to 3,900 meters of water pressure. The Ringlock System holds the crystal under that pressure: a nitrogen-alloyed steel ring around the dial, a thick sapphire above it, and a titanium caseback underneath. Helium escape valve at nine o'clock. The line had been on the market for a few years when Argo went into production.