Brad Pitt wears a Victorinox Crusader

Brad Pitt wears a Victorinox Crusader as Tom Bishop in Tony Scott's Spy Game. Robert Redford co-stars as Nathan Muir, a veteran CIA handler spending his last day at Langley trying to rescue Bishop, his former protege, from a Chinese prison before the agency decides to let him die to preserve diplomatic relations. Catherine McCormack plays the woman caught between Bishop's cover identity and his real one.

The Victorinox Crusader is a Swiss Army watch, built by the same company that makes the knives, with a quartz movement, a brushed steel case, a tan dial with a date window, and a tan strap. On a young CIA field operative working in Beirut, East Berlin, and China, it makes tactical sense: it can be replaced if it is destroyed, and it signals neither wealth nor nationality in a way that might blow a cover. For a man trained to operate in hostile territory without drawing attention, a watch that works in every climate and looks like nothing special is exactly the right move.