Ola Rapace wears a Longines Legend Diver

Patrice is the man Bond is chasing when everything goes wrong. In the pre-title sequence of Skyfall he has stolen a hard drive full of agents' identities, and the pursuit runs across the rooftops of the Istanbul Grand Bazaar and onto a moving train, where a long-range shot meant for Patrice hits Bond instead and drops him into a river. Ola Rapace plays him, a mercenary working for the film's real enemy. The watch on his wrist is a Longines, and that is a casting decision as much as a costume one: Bond wears Omega in Skyfall, and the Longines go to the supporting players. Both brands belong to the Swatch Group, so the placement never leaves the family.

The watch is a Longines Legend Diver, and not the standard one. The reference is L3.674.8.50.0, the version with a case in solid 18-karat rose gold on a black dial and black leather strap. Longines made it only from 2009 to 2012, so Patrice wears a watch that was being retired the same year the film reached cinemas. The Legend Diver is a reissue of a 1960 Longines diver, recognizable by a rotating bezel set under the crystal and turned by a second crown at two o'clock instead of an external ring. In steel it is an affordable homage to a tool watch. In rose gold it crossed eight thousand dollars.

That is a peculiar watch to hang on a contract killer. It gets a genuine close-up in the Shanghai sequence, the gold case bright against the dark dial while Patrice handles his equipment before a job. Minutes later Bond corners him at the top of a glass tower, and in the struggle Patrice goes over the edge and falls, taking the name of his employer with him. The placement spent a rare solid-gold collector's piece, already on its way out of production, on a henchman who is dead well before the film reaches its middle.