Bond Lifestyle's 15 Years Anniversary

This week in October 2020 the Bond Lifestyle website celebrates its 15 years anniversary! The celebrations include a new contest (enter here) and there will be a surprise special edition release in the near future.

Great James Bond memories have been created in October: on October 14th 2005, Daniel Craig was announced to be the 6th James Bond actor, while I was working on the first pages of the website (which was not online yet). Two weeks later, the Bond Lifestyle website was officially launched. In the years that followed, Bond Lifestyle has become the ultimate resource for sophisticated Bond living and the most visited Bond fan website in the world.

On October 29th 2008, the movie Quantum of Solace premiered at Odeon Leicester Square in London. On October 23rd 2012, the movie SkyFall had its Royal World Premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and I also attended a Heineken SkyFall screening and event a few days later, on October 29th 2012. On October 26th 2015 the movie SPECTRE had its Royal Premiere, once again at Royal Albert Hall. All those events were surrounded by many Bond related events with Bond fans and brands.

Design
The design of the Bond Lifestyle website has not changed much since 2005. The basic layout is the same (see design below) but the website did get a major technical overhaul in early 2012, also updating the design slightly.

See below the first design sketch of the Bond Lifestyle website in October 2005 (click to enlarge):

The first design sketch for the website in October 2005

The logo was quickly changed to the logo that is still used today, but the rest of the layout is basically the same as the final website.

Some of the first products added to the website were the Bentley 4,5 Litre Supercharged by Amherst Villiers, Swaine Adeney Brigg case, S.T. Dupont 007 bullet cufflinks, Omega Seamaster 300M Chronometer 2531.80.00.

A screenshot from January 2009 shows the website layout that was used from 2005 - 2012:

Bond Lifestyle design used from 2005-2012

In April 2012, the website was updated to its current design: slightly bigger, more sleek and added functionality. A promotional image of the launch at the time (click to enlarge):

Updated Bond Lifestyle website launch in April 2012

Anniversary Limited Editions
Celebrating the 4th anniversary in 2009, a silk Bond Lifestyle tie was released and available for €10 / $15 / £9.50. Only 100 of these ties were released.

The following year 2010, for the 5th anniversary, Bond Lifestyle released a limited edition deck of Bond Lifestyle Poker cards for €12 / $15 / £10, made by Cartamundi, the same producer of the poker cards and chips in Casino Royale and SkyFall.

Of these cards, 500 decks, individually numbered, were released.

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary, Bond Lifestyle offered a limited edition set of gold-plated cufflinks. That was in July 2016, half a year past the anniversary date, but better late than never.

The cufflinks and card in the black box, white outer sleeve (left)

This anniversary cufflinks were limited to 100 sets, of which some were given away to friends and contributors of Bond Lifestyle and the rest sold out within two days.

Highly detailed, gold-plated gun cufflinks, with two different front faces

The cufflinks are custom-made, gold-plated brass with black enamel. The cufflinks have two different front faces: a left and right side of the gun. The ‘Bullet’ back features a toggle closure for easy fastening. The cufflinks were exclusively designed and produced for Bond Lifestyle.

Box, Cufflinks and Certificate of Authenticity card (shirt and Cumbria Crystal tumbler not included)

The cufflinks were presented on a mock velvet covered card, which could be lifted to a 45 degree angle to lean on the cover of the box, to put it in 'presentation mode'.

Presentation mode to display the cufflinks in your collection

You can click here for larger images to take a closer look at the cufflink set.

Surprise 15 Anniversary special edition

For the 15th Anniversary, Bond Lifestyle will once again release a special edition. 

You can add your email here to be the first to know about the release.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
In 2010, Bond Lifestyle joined social media and currently has more than 144,000 Facebook followers, 11,000 followers on Twitter and 51,000 followers on Instagram.

Competitions
Over the years, Bond Lifestyle organised 60 competitions, giving away high value Bond related prizes including N.Peal sweaters, Orlebar Brown sets, John Smedley shopping sprees, books, signed memorabilia, Dents gloves, Floris perfumes, and much much more. See an overview of the most recent contests here.

WIN Sunglasses
And don't forget to enter the 15 Year Anniversary contest for your chance to win a pair of Curry & Paxton Sean sunglasses!

Thank you!

Bond Lifestyle wants to thank fans from around the world, for the support, input and suggestions! Special thanks to participants of the AJB007.co.uk forum, Simon Ruzgar (@whatsdanielwearing), David Zaritsky (Bond Experience), Ajay Chowdhury (Some Kind of Hero), Ben Williams (MI6), Mark O'Connell (Catching Bullets) Anders Frejdh (From Sweden With Love, GeorgeLazenbyOfficial.com), Martijn Mulder (On The Tracks of 007), Jeff W (Station C), the James Bond Nederland crew), Bernard Vandendriesche (Bernard Wines), Joseph Darlington (BeingJamesBond), Wolfgang Thürauf, Andreas Pott and Benjamin Lind and members of the German Bond Club, Markus (BondToys.de), Ed Maggiani (SpyBoys), Paul Kyriazi (Living the James Bond Lifestyle), Dell Deaton (jamesbondwatches.com), Neil Alcock (Incredible Suit), W. Adam Mandelbaum Esq., Rainer H, Luc LeClech (James Bond France), Richard & Leslie Skillman (ThemePartyPeople), Paul Wynn, Alan Davidson, Andy and Gareth (Bondstars.com), Michael Hackl (007collector.com), David and Elliot Mason (Mason & Sons, Anthony Sinclair) Morten Steingrimsen (Norway), David Leigh (James Bond Dossier), Marcos Kontze (James Bond Brazil), Daniel Guelde, Bill Bokunic, Joe Silock, Markus Hartmann, Harris Thomas (@dressinglikebond), Andrea Mattiazzo, Mattia de Varti, Brad Hansen and Athena Stamos, Matt Spaiser (Bond Suits), Pete Brooker (From Tailors With Love), Allen Hilburn, Robert Scheidemann, Edward Coffrini Dell'Orto, Frank Anderson, Chris Distin, Lorenzo Anselmo, Robert-Jan Broer (FratelloWatches), Onno van Braam, Sam Asaert and all the readers and other contributors!

Bond Lifestyle is an unofficial information resource and is not linked to the official James Bond production companies.