Sean Connery wears a Rolex Submariner

The last time the ref. 6538 appears on Bond. The Rolex Submariner in Thunderball was borrowed, not bought, as Bond's Rolexes had been since Dr. No, and whose personal watch it actually was has never been settled, with producer Cubby Broccoli, the film's director, and a Royal Navy diver on the crew all named over the years. Terence Young directed Thunderball as a SPECTRE nuclear blackmail thriller set in the Bahamas, and the 6538 shows up on a NATO strap alongside the Breitling Top Time that Q modified as a Geiger counter. The Breitling is the gadget watch. The Rolex is the real watch.

The ref. 6538 is the "Big Crown" Submariner, 38mm diameter, oversized crown with no crown guards, bidirectional aluminum bezel. It was the flagship dive watch of its era, designed for professional use but increasingly popular with civilians who liked the look. In 1965, it retailed for a few hundred dollars. A pristine 6538 Big Crown brings six figures at auction today, and a verified screen-used Bond example would rank among the most valuable film props ever, though nobody on set thought so at the time and the watch Connery actually wore was never recovered.

After Thunderball, the 6538 disappeared from Bond's wrist for good.