Live and Let Die (1973)

This is the 1973 film. For the 1954 novel, see Live and Let Die (1954).

Live and Let Die

The eighth James Bond film and the first starring Roger Moore as 007. James Bond is sent to stop a diabolically brilliant heroin magnate armed with a complex organization and a reliable tarot reader. (IMDb)

Watches

Rolex Submariner 5513

Worn by Roger Moore as James Bond. Modified by Q Branch with a hyper-intensified magnetic field and a rotating-bezel saw. Montres de Luxe separately identifies Bond's watch in the film as a Rolex Submariner. (Montres de Luxe) Watches of Espionage describes the issued Rolex as having "a buzz-saw bezel and a magnetic personality", and its gadget survey pictures the magnetic, saw-bezel Submariner. (Watches of Espionage; Watches of Espionage) Fratello's Tissot piece describes the hero watch as "a Rolex modified by designer Syd Cain" with "a razor-edge bezel that worked as a chainsaw or as a strong magnet", a movement-less "pure prop" that nonetheless "was auctioned for a stellar CHF 365,000". (Fratello) Christie's sold the buzz-saw prop in Geneva on 14 November 2011 for CHF 219,000 as "James Bond's specially adapted Rolex wristwatch": a 5513, case 2'683'776, made in 1972 and then converted, its movement removed, the bezel given a saw-tooth edge, the inside case back signed "Roger Moore 007" and a small hole drilled in the end links for the wire that unzips Miss Caruso's dress. (Christie's)

© United Artists

Hamilton Pulsar P2 2900

Worn by Roger Moore as James Bond. In the first scene after the credits, M calls at Bond's flat before dawn and Bond checks the hour (5:48) by pressing the pusher of a steel Pulsar P2 2900, lighting its red LED display. It is the first digital watch in the series, four years before Seiko's credited placement in The Spy Who Loved Me, and the display appears only on demand because the LED drew too much power to stay lit. The screen-used watch, kept by prop master Patrick Weymouth, sold with production paperwork at Prop Store in 2020 for £11,250. (Bond Lifestyle) Propstore's own lot record, from its London 2020 live auction (December 2020), describes "the Hamilton Pulsar P2 2900 LED watch" in stainless steel with the word Pulsar engraved beneath the display and an oyster-style bracelet, its LEDs no longer lighting, sold from Weymouth's collection with an on-set photograph and Moore's wedding telegram and letter to him; the lot page states a reserve of £12,500 including premium and invites post-auction offers, and does not itself carry the £11,250 figure. (Propstore) Caleb Daniels, for Watches of Espionage, reads the Pulsar as deliberate: Bond removes it to put on the new Rolex, and its 1973 release, the film's year, was part of EON's effort to separate Moore from Connery and Lazenby; its red digits appeared only when a button on the case was pressed. (Watches of Espionage) Fratello notes that "The opening scene shows a Hamilton Pulsar on Bond's wrist", and Time+Tide's survey of Hamilton on screen reads the Pulsar as suited to "the gadget-driven nature of Bond". (Fratello; Time+Tide) Hamilton's movie-watches page says that for this film Moore "donned Hamilton's Pulsar, the first digital timepiece with an LED display". (Hamilton, Movie Watches)

© Eon Productions / United Artists

Tissot PR 516

Worn by Roger Moore as James Bond. The film's third watch has no script role and no placement record: a steel-bracelet PR 516 Mk1 diver appears at the Bleeker flying school and again through the speedboat chase, as well as in behind-the-scenes photographs from the shoot. The prevailing account is that Moore simply wore his own watch on days the prop Rolex was elsewhere; no arrangement with Tissot has ever been documented, making it the only Tissot in the Eon series. (Bond Lifestyle) Forumamontres collector Hawk, after buying a wrong variant, identified the screen watch from period catalogues as the PR 516 reference Z44622 with a petrol-blue dial in January 2019, and Necro later linked Fratello's article on the film's Tissot. (Forumamontres; Forumamontres; Forumamontres; Fratello)

© Eon Productions / United Artists