James Stewart wears a Tissot Field Watch

Hitchcock used James Stewart's Tissot as a filmmaking tool. In Rear Window (1954), L.B. Jefferies is a photojournalist with a broken leg, stuck in his Greenwich Village apartment, watching his neighbors through the window. The Tissot field watch sits on his wrist throughout the film, and Hitchcock gives it several close-ups: the dial coming into focus as Jefferies rests his arms on the massage table, then a full-frame shot that reads 1:55 AM and fades to 2:34 AM, the watch face functioning as a time-transition device.

Hodinkee covered the watch in their Watching Movies series and identifies it only as a vintage Tissot field-style piece. Hodinkee notes thick printed Arabic numerals, a curvaceous case, a red arrow-tipped seconds hand, and a nearly textless dial save for the Tissot wordmark. No specific reference number is given because the watch is "an interesting, and now rare, Tissot wristwatch" without a public catalog match. The field watch suits a man who makes his living in dangerous places. Jefferies broke his leg photographing a car race, and the worn look of the Tissot suggests years of assignments in conditions that would ruin a dress watch.

Hitchcock was meticulous about props, and giving a photojournalist a Tissot field watch rather than something fancier was a deliberate choice. Jefferies is not rich. He works for a living, and his watch shows it.