Guy Pearce wears a Rolex Precision Bubbleback

Guy Pearce wears a Rolex Precision Bubbleback as Ed Exley in Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential, adapted from James Ellroy's novel about corruption in the 1950s LAPD. Pearce plays Exley as the son of a legendary detective, an ambitious young officer who wears glasses, follows procedure, and is openly despised by his colleagues for testifying against fellow cops. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, and James Cromwell co-star.

The Rolex Bubbleback is a period-perfect choice. Rolex produced them from the late 1930s through the early 1950s, and the "Bubbleback" nickname comes from the rounded caseback that accommodated the early automatic movement's rotor. The Precision designation means it's a hand-wound model, slightly slimmer and more refined than the automatics. On Exley, whose father was the most decorated detective in LAPD history, the Bubbleback reads as an inheritance. It's the kind of watch a respected cop in the 1940s would have owned and passed to his son. Exley spends the entire film trying to live up to his father's reputation while discovering that the department his father served has rotted from the inside. The Bubbleback is a reminder of what the badge was supposed to mean, sitting on the wrist of a man who's about to learn what it actually means.