“The colour blue really suited Pierce,” recalls Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming. “I was dressing him in lots of blue shirts and the blue bezel and dial of the Omega Seamaster matched perfectly. Plus, blue suited Commander Bond’s naval background.”

As a switch from the Rolex Submariner – James Bond’s default choice since Dr No bar a few dubious meanderings into digital Seikos in the seventies – Hemming’s choice of the Omega Seamaster 300 was perfect in every way. “Beautiful,” even, according to Vesper Lynd during the dining-car scene in Casino Royale, by comparison to the watch she blithely assumes 007’s type would wear (Rolex, obviously).

It’s not just the blue though, Lindy. As perfect as Omega’s professional-spec diving watch suited Mr Brosnan’s twinkling eyes and deck uniform when she first dressed him for Goldeneye all the way back in 1995, the Seamaster really is the default choice for Britain’s finest seamen, albeit those whose operational bonuses can afford it. For everyone else, here’s everything you need to know about the Seamaster 300, from its heritage to the most sought after models today.

Omega’s Military Pedigree

Today, the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service – notoriously harder than their landlubber SAS contemporaries are almost entirely kitted out with specially engraved, proudly war-torn Seamaster 300 Professionals. But the Swiss brand’s service roots extend back much further. Rugged, legible, highly water-resistant, chronometer-level precision Omega timepieces were kitted-out to British servicemen and pilots almost exclusively during World War II. See the wrist of Tom Hardy’s Spitfire pilot in Dunkirk for further cinematic proof of that particular pedigree.

War, after all, accelerates technological innovation, as this year’s 70th-anniversary Seamaster reissues remind us. Between 1940 and 1945, Omega delivered more than 110,000 timepieces to the British Ministry of Defence. After the war, as we steadily progressed through the jet age toward the nuclear age and finally the space race, this breathless period of innovation found Omega at the height of its engineering creativity.