Jonathan Majors wears a Rolex Oysterdate Precision

Topside on the carrier Leyte, after an act of unsanctioned heroism has earned him a reprimand from the Navy, Jesse Brown is approached by seaman Archie Fambrough with a box from the ship's Black sailors. Inside, on a black leather strap, is a Rolex Oysterdate Precision they bought with pooled money in Cannes nearly six months earlier, its caseback engraved "Above all others." The camera holds it in extreme close-up: the coronet over ROLEX OYSTERDATE, PRECISION at six, stick markers on a pale dial, and a cyclops date window reading 3. The scene is set on December 3, 1950, the day before Brown's final mission, and the date window matches it.

Danny Milton at Hodinkee worked that hero shot and landed on a ref. 6694: "we are confident in the reference number of the watch." The watch itself is another matter. Rolex does not supply watches to film productions, and Milton was openly dubious about the engraving: "Would the production really engrave a vintage Rolex for a film? Hard to say." BAMF Style raised the sharper problem, that the 6694 did not enter production until the 1960s, an anachronism of more than a decade for a film set in 1950, "though it does have an elegant period look." Wherever props master Eric J. Bates found it, it is the second watch the film puts on Brown's wrist. Early on he wears a military-issue piece on a steel bracelet that Hodinkee could narrow only to "what appears to be a Bulova MIL-W-3818A," possibly an A17A.

The real Jesse Brown was the first African-American aviator to complete the Navy's basic flight training program, earning his wings in October 1948. The day after the scene with the watch, on December 4, 1950, his aircraft was hit by small-arms fire over the Chosin Reservoir and he crash-landed on a mountainside; his wingman Tom Hudner intentionally crash-landed nearby to attempt a rescue but could not free him from the wreckage. For his actions in Korea, Brown was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, and the Air Medal. He was 24.