Robert Downey Jr. wears a Bulgari Diagono

For more than a decade, watch forums were certain that the watch on Tony Stark's wrist in the first Iron Man was a Hublot Big Bang. It sure looks like one. But aBlogtoWatch, writing back at the 2008 release, reported that Robert Downey Jr. wore only Bvlgari in the film, and that the opening-scene watch everyone took for a Big Bang was actually a Bvlgari Diagono built to resemble one, with similar hands but smaller dimensions. Bvlgari was the film's watch sponsor, and Downey has said he wore the Bvlgari pieces because of that deal. Look closely and the bezel resolves it: a real Big Bang carries six exposed H-shaped screws, and this watch has none, just a plain notched coin-edge. What is on screen is a round steel sports chronograph with a blue dial, big luminous markers, and a black rubber strap, worn in the suited desert beat after Afghanistan. The dispute is genuine, and plenty of people still call it a Hublot, which is why this sits at Likely rather than Confirmed; but the best source on the film, the sponsorship, and the missing screws all point the same way. There is something fitting about it. Tony Stark, a man who builds a suit so he can be someone else, opens his film wearing a watch dressed up as a different watch.