Roger Moore wears a Hamilton Pulsar P2

The world's first digital watch, on the world's most famous spy. Roger Moore's debut as Bond in Live and Let Die (1973) opened with a scene designed to announce that this was a different 007: a woman checks the time by pressing a button on a gold bracelet, and a red LED display glows to life. The Hamilton Pulsar P2 2900 had been on the market for barely a year, it cost $2,100 in 1972 dollars (more than a Rolex Submariner), and it looked like nothing else that existed. Guy Hamilton directed, and the Pulsar established Moore's Bond as a man who lived in the present tense, not Connery's past.

The Pulsar P2 was not a practical watch. The LED display consumed too much battery power to run continuously, so the screen stayed dark until you pressed the button, a problem for a spy who might need to check the time without using both hands. Hamilton Electronics (no relation to the Swiss watchmaker that later acquired the brand) built the Pulsar as a statement about the future of timekeeping, and it sold to early adopters and tech enthusiasts. Bond wearing one was the equivalent of a modern spy using a prototype smartwatch before it hits retail.

Moore wore three watches in Live and Let Die, the Pulsar for the tech showcase, a Rolex Submariner ref. 5513 modified by Q Branch with a magnetic field and buzz-saw bezel, and a Tissot PR-516 in some action sequences. The three-watch approach set the pattern for Moore's entire Bond run: a traditional Swiss watch for the heritage audience, a gadget watch for the plot, and something unexpected for flavor.