Jane Fonda wears an unidentified watch

Kimberly Wells is not a serious journalist when The China Syndrome begins. Jane Fonda plays her as a local TV reporter doing light human-interest segments, the kind of on-air personality who is valued for her looks and told to leave the hard news to the men. When her cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) captures footage of a nuclear plant accident, Wells sees her chance to do real reporting. The station kills the story. The utility company threatens legal action. Wells pushes anyway, and the film follows her transformation from someone who reads teleprompters to someone willing to risk everything for a story that matters.

The watch on Fonda's wrist hasn't been identified. It's visible in several scenes as Wells works phones, reviews footage, and confronts her producers. For a female TV reporter in 1979, the watch would likely be something modest and camera-appropriate — nothing that distracts on-air but functional enough for a woman who is starting to realize she needs to work faster than the people trying to shut her down.