Sean Connery wears a Rolex Submariner

The Rolex Submariner ref. 6538 "Big Crown" that Connery wears in From Russia with Love was, by most accounts, borrowed rather than bought for the production, the story usually being that it was producer Cubby Broccoli's own. It is the same 6538 from Dr. No, a 38mm diver with an 8mm crown, bidirectional aluminum bezel, gloss black dial, and no crown guards. Connery wears it on a leather strap rather than the oyster bracelet, and it appears in the action sequences while his personal Gruen Precision 510 handles the indoor scenes.

Terence Young directed From Russia with Love, generally considered the best of the Connery Bonds. The film moves from Istanbul to the Orient Express, and the Submariner is visible during the gypsy camp fight, the boat chase, and the confrontation with Robert Shaw's Red Grant on the train. The 6538 was a working diver's tool watch in 1963, Rolex had only introduced the Submariner a decade earlier, and it had not yet become a status symbol. Bond wears it because it is a tough, water-resistant watch appropriate for a naval intelligence officer, not because it says anything about his wealth.

The Bond-Rolex association that would define decades of watch marketing started because a producer handed an actor a watch from his own wrist and nobody thought to make it a bigger deal than that.