Jim Carrey wears a Hamilton American Classic

Truman Burbank does not know that his entire life is a television show, that the town of Seahaven is a soundstage, and that everyone around him, including his wife and his best friend, is an actor. Peter Weir's The Truman Show follows the days when Truman begins to notice the seams. Jim Carrey plays him with the manic edge dialed down, and the film keeps needling the staged world around him: the neighbors who greet him on cue, the radio that tracks his movements, the friends who work brand names into ordinary conversation.

On his wrist is a gold square-cased dress watch with a squared dial on a brown leather strap. Watch spotters have identified it as a vintage Hamilton Boulton, a rectangular Art Deco model Hamilton first sold in the 1930s and has revived several times since, most recently in its American Classic line. The brand is not legible on screen, so the identification rests on the watch's distinctive shape rather than a clear logo.