The Untouchables (1987)

The Untouchables

The Untouchables, directed by Brian De Palma from David Mamet's screenplay, was released by Paramount Pictures in June 1987. Kevin Costner plays Eliot Ness, the Prohibition agent who assembles an incorruptible team, including Sean Connery's veteran beat cop Jim Malone, to bring down Al Capone, played by Robert De Niro. Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. (Letterboxd)

Watches

Bulova (unidentified model)

Worn by Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness. A Propstore lot for the film's screen-used prop watches (lot #1077, sold November 16, 2021) names Ness's watch specifically as "a facsimile Bulova"; the same lot also covers Jim Malone's (Sean Connery) unbranded pocket watch, carried rather than worn, with a sealed case back, and Oscar Wallace's (Charles Martin Smith) "facsimile Tradition." (Propstore) The auctioned prop pairs a rectangular gold-toned case with a black leather strap, matching a costume-analysis site's description of the on-screen watch worn during the Canadian border raid as "a yellow gold tank watch with a silver square dial on a black leather strap." (BAMF Style) Montres de Luxe had earlier called the same watch only "a vintage IWC," with no supporting image or visible reasoning. (Montres de Luxe) Neither the documented prop nor the tank-cased watch visible on screen supports an IWC identification, and the row now links the Bulova brand page pending a specific model or reference.

© Paramount Pictures

Tradition watch

Worn by Charles Martin Smith as Oscar Wallace. The watch is a production facsimile of a Sears house-brand watch rather than a Sears product: the same Propstore lot that names Ness's facsimile Bulova (London 2021 live auction, November 2021) states that "Ness and Wallace wore watches throughout the film" and that "Wallace's a facsimile Tradition", the label under which Sears, Roebuck sold its better Swiss-supplied watches from the mid-1950s. Tradition is the design the facsimile copies, not a placement, and the lot names no model; Malone's watch in the same lot, carried in his cardigan pocket, "is an unknown make with a sealed back panel" and gets no row. (Propstore)

© Paramount Pictures