Joel David Moore wears a Tokyoflash 1259B

Norm Spellman is the man who did everything right and still got passed over. He trained to drive an avatar and learned to speak Na'vi, and then watched the Na'vi take to Jake Sully, a paraplegic ex-Marine who had done none of the preparation. Joel David Moore plays him as the eager specialist who keeps turning up after the plan stops going his way, working the lab early on and taking up a gun in the final battle. Avatar is set in 2154 on the moon Pandora, and almost none of the watches in it were invented for the future.

Worn & Wound identified the one on Norm's wrist as a Tokyoflash Twelve 5-9, the B version, written 1259B, a Japanese LED watch the company had sold since 2006 for 8900 yen, about 76 dollars. It has no hands. A stainless steel case carries three windows of light: a round one for the hour, with markers at twelve, six and nine, a long bar for the single minutes, and a shorter bar that counts the minutes in tens. The B version came in red, blue or green, the stitching on its black strap matched to the LEDs. It runs on a CR2032 cell and is not water resistant.

The most futuristic-looking thing on screen, worn by the film's designated scientist, is a mid-2000s novelty whose whole selling point was that the time is hard to read. The soldiers around him carry something plainer. By Worn & Wound's account, Colonel Quaritch, Jake Sully and Trudy Chacon all wear Casio G-Shocks, ordinary tough watches bought off a shelf. James Cameron put real watches on everyone and handed the gadget to the scientist.