James Earl Jones wears a Timex

Terence Mann is J.D. Salinger with the serial numbers filed off. Kevin Costner's Ray Kinsella hears a voice telling him to find the reclusive author, and James Earl Jones plays Mann as a man who has given up on writing, public life, baseball, and probably hope itself. Phil Alden Robinson directed Field of Dreams (1989), and Jones's arrival shifts the film from magical realism into something funnier and sadder.

The watch on Mann's wrist is a Timex, a plain silver-toned piece suited to a man who stopped buying new things decades ago. Propstore sold the screen-worn watch with the Kinsella family checkbook, noting Mann wore it throughout the film. When he finally delivers the speech about baseball and what it means to America, no one is looking at his wrist, which is the right fate for an honest, inexpensive watch.