Denzel Washington wears a Calteck (prop replica)

Crimson Tide (1995) is Tony Scott's submarine thriller about two officers who disagree, at gunpoint, over whether to launch nuclear missiles after a garbled order. Denzel Washington plays Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter, the Harvard-educated executive officer who refuses to fire without confirmation, against Gene Hackman's by-the-book captain.

For years Hunter's watch was guessed to be a Breitling, matching his captain's. It is not. The piece Propstore sold from prop master Mike Papac's collection, among Hunter's rings and his SSBN 731 keys, is a static prop the production built and branded to resemble a Calteck, a no-name watch dressed up to look like something it is not. There is a small irony in that, for a film about a man who insists on verifying what is real before he acts on it.