Sacha Baron Cohen wears a Cartier Pasha de Cartier

Admiral General Aladeen rules the invented North African nation of Wadiya, and Sacha Baron Cohen plays him as every tinpot strongman rolled into one, a chestful of invented medals over a green uniform and an enormous black beard. Larry Charles's The Dictator (2012) sends him to New York to address the United Nations about his nuclear program. On his wrist is a gold Cartier Pasha on a brown strap.

The Pasha de Cartier arrived in 1985, designed by Gerald Genta, and it is one of the more recognizable Cartiers: a round case carrying a square minutes track inside a round dial, Arabic numerals at twelve, three, six and nine, and a screw-down cap over the crown, tethered to the case by a tiny chain so it cannot be dropped. The name goes back further, to a story Cartier tells about Thami El Glaoui, the Pasha of Marrakech, commissioning a gold water-resistant watch from Louis Cartier in the 1930s. There is little hard evidence the commission ever happened. It reads more like brand mythology than history.

Aladeen is a pasha in all but name, a preening ruler of a make-believe state, and the watch on his wrist is literally called the Pasha. Whether the wardrobe department planned the pun or not, the name fits the man.