Nicholas Woodeson wears a Longines Evidenza

The word that gives the film its name is the last one on a list. Bond has come back to MI6 after being written off as dead, and part of being put back into the field is a psychological evaluation. A staff doctor runs a word-association test: he says a word, Bond says the first one that comes back. The exchange is flat and a little hostile, and it ends when the doctor reaches the final word, "Skyfall." Bond pauses, answers "Done," and stands up to leave. The man asking the questions is Doctor Hall, played by Nicholas Woodeson, and on his wrist is a Longines Evidenza.

It is about as un-Bond a watch as Longines makes. The reference is L2.643.4.73.4, a chronograph in a tonneau case: steel, around 40 millimeters tall and a little narrower across, with a silver flinqué dial, painted Arabic numerals and blued steel hands, three subdials and a date window at six o'clock. Inside is the Longines L650 automatic, good for about 42 hours of running. The tonneau shape, wider at the middle and tapered top and bottom, goes back to the 1910s, and next to the round dive watches elsewhere in the cast it looks deliberately old-fashioned. It is a dress watch for the one man in the scene whose job is to sit still and assess.

The choice was not random. Bond has worn Omega since 1995, and in Skyfall the Longines go to the supporting players: Doctor Hall here, and the assassin Patrice, played by Ola Rapace, who wears a Longines Legend Diver. Omega and Longines are both owned by the Swatch Group, with Omega priced a tier above its older sister brand, so the watches were cast much the way the actors were, the lead in the premium label and the men across the table from him in the one just below it.