Omega Seamaster Co-Axial 300 M: Commemorating 50 years of James Bond films

With special thanks to our good friend Dell Deaton, it is a pleasure to release information about the new Omega Seamaster watch commemorating 50 years of James Bond films. Visit Dell’s twitter account here for additional information and more photographs.

TimeZone.com has the official press release here

No price communicated as of yet. Below are pics. (Click to enlarge.)

Note the diamond at the seven on the dial, the “50” in red on the chronometer, and the use of Binder’s gun-barrel design on the back.

Cool, and understated. Just the way HMSS likes it. Well done.

The HMSS Editors

The Architectural Record talks about the IFF “Bond Vehicles” museum

Although it’s not exactly breaking news at this point, the Architectural Record website has got a nice little article, posted today, about the Ian Fleming Foundation’s planned “Bond Vehicles” museum.

Tudor Van Hampton’s piece, Gensler Tapped for James Bond Museum, is a brief précis on the genesis of the museum, and the famed architectural firm’s involvement in the project. It also carries a very interesting slideshow featuring CGI mockups and architectural drawings of the facility.

(Sadly, the slideshow does not feature this picture of HMSS Managing Editor Tom Zielinski taking the Live and Let Die speedboat for an imaginary spin.)

Click for larger -- and funnier -- image.

Of course, we here at HMSS wish the IFF in general — and our good pal (and sometimes contributor) Doug Redenius in particular — all the luck in the world with this ambitious project. Today, Momence; tomorrow… who knows?

You can read all about it RIGHT HERE.

Top 10 real-life spy gadgets

The Times Online has an interesting, and entertaining, column by Free Agent spy novelist Jeremy Duns, counting down his ten favorite real espionage inventions.

Ranging from the standard KGB crudities (poison-tipped umbrellas), to clever Q-Branch wizardry (magnetized trouser buttons that could be converted into a compass), to the wackily bizarre (exploding rats!), the list is bound to fire your imagination, and maybe even learn you a thing or two.

Top 10 Real-Life Spy Gadgets can be found in the “Books” section of the Times. Most of the devices listed to have links to earlier articles, so you can have quite a bit of fun rooting around in that venerable organ’s attic.

“Uncle Jed, buy me a spy car.”

Beverly Hillbilly Jethro Bodine longed to be “a double-naught secret agent,” and implored his millionaire uncle to get him the proper set of wheels.

© Exclusive Motor Cars

If you’re like Jethro, or you’re a James Bond fan, or a car buff, or a James Bond car buff, or a hard-core Bond collector, and if you can spare $126,000, the good people at Exclusive Motor Cars have a deal for you.

Using an early 2000s V8 Ford Mustang as a base, this Canadian “Q branch” can put together for you a replica of James Bond’s Die Another Day Aston Martin Vanquish, complete with a, in their words, “spy package.”

Said package includes:

• Front Grill Rockets;
• Machine Gun Cannons;
• Revolving License Plate;
• Center Console Champagne Case;
• and, in a perhaps un-Bondian nod to safety considerations,
  Back Seat Compartment for fire extinguisher and helmet

The actual body of the car is a combination of vacuum infused and hand laid up fibreglass composite. You can get it in any color you want, but, let’s face it, you’re going to be ordering it in a proper shade of silver. Interior colors are Aston Martin standards.

So, for your money, you’re getting a luxury sports car tricked out with way-cool 007 gadgetry. The company stresses that they’re not in the business of building Aston Martin replicas:

We are trying to reproduce the ultimate James Bond spy car, not an Aston Martin (That is Aston Martin’s job).

This is from their FAQ, and gives us a frisson of covetous glee:
Q: How close is your car to the original James Bond car?
A: Very close.

Specifications, pricing, pictures, and all the other requisite business can be found at their website; we recommend jumping straight to THE SPY CAR page.

Ask your Uncle Jed to break out his checkbook, Jethro!