Denzel Washington wears a Suunto Core All Black

Before Robert McCall hurts anyone in The Equalizer 2, he starts his watch. The stopwatch ritual carried over from the first film, and the watch blog Everyday Metal described it plainly: McCall "uses his watch throughout the movie to time his brutal encounters," and "each time he activates his watch, you know that a beat down is on the way." The instrument on the wrist of Denzel Washington's retired intelligence operative is a Suunto Core All Black, the blacked-out version of the Finnish brand's outdoor computer: a composite case under a serrated bezel ringed with compass points, carrying an altimeter, a barometer, a compass, and a storm alarm behind its digital display.

Suunto put its own name behind the pairing. When the first Equalizer opened in 2014, the brand's Spanish arm bundled two free cinema tickets with every Core All Black sold on Suunto.com, announcing that Washington "returns to the big screen with his Suunto Core All Black." The prop also has a wrinkle that fans worked out and the company half-confirmed: the stopwatch display on screen does not match the commercial watch. The franchise's wiki records that when Suunto was asked whether McCall wore a special edition, the company said no, and that the display had most likely been altered digitally in post-production. Everyday Metal noticed the same edit, a blue tint the production gave the screen.

The Equalizer 2 was the first sequel of Washington's career. Antoine Fuqua directed, Richard Wenk wrote the screenplay, and the story hands McCall, now working as a driver in Boston, a personal case: Susan Plummer, his former DIA colleague played by Melissa Leo, is killed in a Brussels hotel room, and the trail leads to Dave York, McCall's old partner, played by Pedro Pascal, whose team had gone into killing for hire. The finale plays out in McCall's evacuated seaside hometown as a hurricane comes ashore, ending on a watchtower above the surf. The film took 190.4 million dollars from its July 2018 release, and when McCall returned in The Equalizer 3 he had traded up to a newer Suunto, the 9 Peak. The Core All Black is the watch of the first two films.