Oliver Platt wears an Ulysse Nardin Maxi Marine Chronometer

Every disaster movie needs a politician who puts self-preservation ahead of humanity. In Roland Emmerich's 2012 (2009), Oliver Platt plays Carl Anheuser, the White House Chief of Staff who manages the secret ark-building program while the planet falls apart. Chiwetel Ejiofor is the idealistic scientist who discovers the crisis. Danny Glover plays the president. John Cusack is the everyman trying to get his family onto one of the arks. Woody Harrelson shows up as a conspiracy-theory radio host who, for once, is right about everything.

Platt's Ulysse Nardin Maxi Marine Chronometer is the kind of watch most people won't recognize, which is exactly the point. Ulysse Nardin has made marine chronometers since 1846, and their instruments were used by over fifty navies worldwide. The Maxi Marine Chronometer updates that heritage into a wristwatch with a large case, power reserve indicator, and COSC-certified movement. It's a watch for someone who knows watches, not for someone who wants to be seen wearing one. For Anheuser, a backroom operator comfortable making survival decisions for the human race, it reads as competent, expensive, and deliberately understated.