Samuel L. Jackson wears a Ritmo Mundo Racer

The 2019 Shaft is the fifth film in the series, and it does something the first four never tried: it puts three generations of Shaft on screen at once. Richard Roundtree, who first played the role in 1971, is there, with Isaac Hayes's theme still under him. Samuel L. Jackson is the Shaft of the present. Jessie Usher is the FBI cyber-analyst son who would rather solve a murder with a laptop than a fist. Tim Story directed it as a comedy, which is its own kind of nerve. Roundtree died in 2023, so this is near the end of a part he played for nearly fifty years.

The watch on Jackson's wrist is a Ritmo Mundo Racer, a steel chronograph from an American brand that lives on the racing circuit. It is a big, loud watch, and that is the point. This is also not the first Ritmo Mundo he has worn on screen, which is unusual; a movie watch is normally a one-time wardrobe choice. Shaft is a Harlem private eye in a long orange leather coat. A quiet Swiss dress watch would be lying. A loud chronograph from a racing brand tells the truth.