Omega Seamaster 300M Quartz 2541.80.00

In GoldenEye (1995) James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) wears an Omega Seamaster 300M Quartz Professional 2541.80.00, stainless steel full size case with, blue face and blue bezel on a stainless steel bracelet.

In the film, Bond's colleague Agent 006 Alec Trevelyan (played by Sean Bean) wears the same watch, but with a black leather strap.

Actually in the pre-title sequence of the film, which is set 9 years before the rest of the film, when Bond and Trevelyan still work together, they both wear what looks like an Omega Seamaster on a black leather strap. This is an anachronism, as the Seamaster 300M 2541.80 with this design was first introduced in 1993, so not available in 1986, which is when the pre-title sequence is supposedly set..

James Bond wears the Omega Seamaster watch throughout the film, with every outfit, and the watch is visible quite well in many scenes, for example in the Aston Martin DB5 / Ferrari F355 chase, in the Monte Carlo Casino when he's tied up in the Tiger Eurocopter. But the watch is best seen when the gadget features are used.

The Seamaster 300M continues the Bond tradition of gadget watches: watches that were provided by Q Branch and that have special features that assist Bond in the field.

This Omega Seamaster 300M has two gadget functions: a laser beam and a remote detonator.

The laser beam shoots out of the 12 o'clock lume pip on the bezel. Bond uses this feature to burn through the floor of the train, which gives us a good closeup watch of the watch. The laser watch allows Bond to escape with Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) before the explosion of the train.

The remote detonator function of the watch is activated by pressing the helium valve crown, which in normal Seamaster watches is not a button, but a screw down crown protecting the gas escape valve used during for deep diving.

The best shot of the Seamaster watch is towards the end of the film when Bond's now ex-colleague Alec Trevelyan holds both his own Seamaster watch (which he apparently kept all those years) and Bond's watch together, and comments on Bond's newer model (meaning new gadgets, because the model looks the same), and he disarms a bomb by pushing the helium valve crown.

The 'regular' Omega Seamaster 300M Quartz Professional 2541.80.00 is a true diver's watch but doesn't have any Q Branch gadgets other than time and date (date window at 3 o'clock position). A 'hidden' feature is a low battery indicator: the seconds hand will skip only every 4 seconds, indicating that the battery needs to be replaced very soon.

The watch has a very nice and comfortable bracelet, which features a diver's extension (so it fits over a diver's suit). The blue dial has the now famous blue wave pattern, lume dots on the hour markers and the hands, and a uni-directional rotating bezel.

The caseback of the watch features the Seamaster logo (sea horse) and a wave pattern.

With the crown in the 2nd position, you can skip the small hour hand one hour, this is also the way to set the date: moving the hand 12 hours puts the date backward or forward. This is a feature only seen on the Quartz version of the Seamaster; the automatic watches work differently (one crown position for adjusting the minute hands, and another for the date).

The Omega Seamaster 300M 2541.80.00 was first produced in 1993 and for several years after 1995 and it's still easy to find on eBay (make sure to buy from trusted sellers) or on JomaShop.

I got mine in very good condition at Chrono24, a trusted second hand online market place, from seller The Watch Vault NYC (Jerome Jao) who I can recommend, he regularly has few Seamasters in stock.

Specifications
- Date window at 3 o'clock position
- Caliber: Omega 1538 Quartz precision movement. Battery end of life indicator.
- Power reserve: 27 / 36 months
- Domed anti-reflective, scratch resistant sapphire crystal
- Stainless steel case, 41mm, with blue dial
- Water resistant up to 300 meters
 

Omega and James Bond

GoldenEye was the first, but certainly not the last time Bond wears an Omega watch. The partnership started with GoldenEye in 1995 and anOmega advertisement that was released at the time of the film stated correctly "An enduring partnership begins". It certainly did: Bond has been wearing Omega watches in all 8 Bond movies since GoldenEye and many 007 branded limited editions have been released. It can even be argued that Omega's partnership with James Bond is one of the major factors in Omega's success in the past decades.

In all his Bond movies after GoldenEye, Brosnan wears an Omega Seamaster Professional 300M with the same case and blue bezel, but with an automatic movement (ref 2531.80 Chronometer) instead of the Quartz.

Daniel Craig also wears an Omega Seamaster with blue bezel in Casino Royale, the newer Omega Seamaster 300M Co-Axial 2220.80.00, but in his films, he has worn many other different Seamaster variations.

Other sightings of this watch

An Omega Seamaster 300M Quartz Professional 2541.80.00 Quartz watch is also worn by the President of the United States Joe Biden. And Prince William, Duke of Cambridge wears a smaller Seamaster 300M Diver 2561.80.00 mid-size 36.2mm that is said to have been gifted to him by his mother Lady Diana.

The Seamaster watch is also seen in the famous GoldenEye Nintendo 64 video game, although the likeness is not very close.

In 2021, a never released X-Box 360 version of the game GoldenEye was leaked, and in that version of the game, Bond's Seamaster 300M watch is actually very closely replicated.