Apocalypse Now (1979)

Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic. A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god. (IMDb)

Watches

Seiko 6105-8110

Worn by Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard. Willard wears the same chunky Seiko diver that U.S. troops actually wore in Vietnam. Montres de Luxe independently identifies the watch as a Seiko Diver 6105. (Montres de Luxe) Hodinkee independently identifies the Seiko 6105 by its black dial, fully graduated black bezel, applied square and rectangular markers and date at three, and times the mirror-punching breakdown that opens the film at 00:07:13. (Hodinkee) A separate Hodinkee essay on the SPB153 reissue notes that a MACV-SOG officer wearing a 6105 is historically accurate. (Hodinkee) Worn & Wound's staff list of screen watches gives the fuller reference, "the famous Seiko 6105-8110/9", for the watch in the opening hotel-room scene, and Fratello's cinema podcast likewise names the "Seiko 6105-8110" as the model Sheen wore. (Worn & Wound; Fratello) Monochrome's SKX007 history gives the sub-reference differently, as the "6105-8009 (the turtle case), which was immortalized forever as the watch worn by Captain Benjamin L. Willard, portrayed by Martin Sheen"; the 8110/8119 turtle-case reading above is the one the specialist sources agree on, and a reader comment on the same article makes that correction. (Monochrome)

© American Zoetrope / United Artists

Rolex GMT-Master 1675

Worn by Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz. Brando's own GMT-Master, worn bezel-less in the film, later sold at auction for nearly two million dollars. Montres de Luxe independently identifies the watch as a steel Rolex GMT-Master on a leather strap, also noting the missing bicolor 24-hour bezel. (Montres de Luxe) Hodinkee identifies the GMT-Master 1675 with a matte black dial, red GMT hand, no bezel and a leather strap, and times Kurtz washing his face at 02:25:59. (Hodinkee) Its hands-on with the watch before the December 2019 Phillips sale records a 1972 case, a service matte dial, a case back Brando engraved "M. Brando", and that it is one of two 1675s Brando owned, told apart by its rounded crown guards. (Hodinkee) Revolution's profile of Brando independently records the cameo "in which he wore a Rolex GMT Master with its bezel missing", giving no reference, and Fratello's cinema podcast notes the watch "sold at auction (again) last weekend for just under €5,000,000" in November 2023. (Revolution; Fratello)

© American Zoetrope / United Artists