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Celebrity watch: Are you a Brad or a James?
Celebrity watch: Are you a Brad or a James?

In the books, you know, Bond was a Rolex man.

Rolex brought testosterone to the wristwatch: Shake it, stir it -- a Rolex will get you to the train on time. James Bond's was a Submariner, waterproof to 1,000 feet and priced these days at around $5,175.

Rolex pioneered celebrity endorsements for watches when Mercedes Gleitz wore one as she swam the English Channel in 1927. But now on celluloid, Bond has dissed Rolex for an Omega Seamaster, and this is the way we think of him: The icy eyes of the new 007, Daniel Craig, glimmering from the ads of Omega -- a watchmaker that has the Hollywood endorsement thing down pat. Omega will even sell you a limited edition "Casino Royale" watch with the title of the latest Bond flick engraved where some buyers might have etched an homage to their lover. A tiny orange "007" revolves on the second hand.

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The other day, I went to Beverly Hills to hunt for a watch for my husband. James -- my James -- wears a rubber Nike sports watch with an annoying alarm. I cannot bear it any longer.

I arrived on Rodeo Drive armed with almost no horologic knowledge, but loaded with star endorsements. Bond. Or is my man a Brad Pitt type? Then it's TAG Heuer for him. Tennis ace Roger Federer has endorsed Rolex and Maurice Lacroix. Even Gary Sinise got an endorsement deal, for Baume & Mercier.

The Swiss watch industry is hoping that it can sell us a watch for every season, much as Coach did with handbags. For now, they are plastering magazines with their "ambassadors" -- Baume & Mercier has Meg Ryan for women, Kiefer Sutherland (as well as Mr. Sinise) for men. The assumption is, we will choose the celebrity we most admire, and then pick their watch.

Ironically, big luxury fashion brands have so overused celebrities in their advertising -- Louis Vuitton and Uma, Versace and Demi, Chanel and Nicole -- that a certain celebrity backlash has developed. Fashion's big guns have gone back to using models in their ads. Now, the watch industry is picking up the slack.

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"Advertising for watches is still somewhat neophyte. ... The fashion industry is way ahead," says Joseph Panetta, a spokesman for Swatch Group Ltd. brands including Breguet, which began making watches before the French Revolution.

Watch brands need to differentiate themselves. Rolex is the only high-end brand that has risen above the fray. Wealthy people say they are more likely to buy a Rolex than any other brand for their next watch, according to a report soon to be published by the Luxury Institute research group in New York. The brand is far more recognizable (84 percent knew it) than Bulgari (39 percent) and even Cartier (63 percent), although rivals outranked Rolex for perceived quality and exclusivity.

Unfortunately, I can find no rhyme to the reason why Rado picked Nobu Matsuhisa, the sushi chef, to represent its watches, while Longines chose both Harry Connick Jr. and the Chinese men's gymnastics team. So on Rodeo Drive, I muster the courage to ask questions.

It might surprise you, as it did me, that so many men enjoy manual labor these days. Battery-driven quartz watches nearly killed the Swiss industry in the 1980s, but now sales of mechanical Swiss watches have surged, particularly in the tech-crazed U.S. America buys more Swiss watches than any other country -- although Hong Kong is in hot pursuit. World-wide, Swiss watch exports rose 13 percent to 1.52 billion Swiss francs last year, according to data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH. More than a quarter of that growth was for watches worth more than $5,000, according to Swiss watch giant Swatch Group, which owns 15 brands including Longines and Omega.

It appears that we, in the age of the iPod, enjoy the bucolic endeavor of winding our $85,000 Breguet tourbillons, with their tiny antigravity chambers in the movement. Maybe the tender effort punctuates the pleasure of affording a watch that took three months to make.

Two new watch boutiques opened on Rodeo Drive last year -- Omega and Breguet, where the starting price for a watch is $6,500. It can take all afternoon with a customer to sell one $100,000 Breguet, says the assistant store manager there, JB Diez Tomasini.

Looking out at a street where the paparazzi sometimes park block by block, Mr. Tomasini says, "We are not Versace -- we are not fashionable. We are CEOs and architects -- more of a cultural crowd." Breguet's celebs are of a different caliber: Winston Churchill and Marie Antoinette. The company's founder, Abraham-Louis Breguet, built a collection for the doomed French queen even as she sat in jail. Later, he changed spots with alacrity, becoming big with the Bonapartes. Considered the father of watchmaking, he invented the wristwatch in 1810 for Napoleon's sister, the queen of Naples.

A block north at Geary's -- where they sell Rolex and Patek Philippe -- if you sport a touch of gray at your temple and pack a wallet that can withstand a hit, a salesman may steer you to the Patek cases to the left of the aisle.

Patek Philippe eschews nouveau riche celebrity endorsements altogether. The slogan for their men's line goes, "You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation." This fails to indicate that a Patek's movement is so fragile that it may be knocked off kilter by the g-force of the average golf swing. Do not consider scuba diving in your Patek to a madman's undersea nuclear laboratory.

But my guy plays tennis and runs. Rolexes are endorsed by seven tennis pros, 24 golfers, four equestrians, three yachtsmen, one skier (Hermann Maier), two race-car drivers and a polo player.

The Geary's salesman wears his father's TAG Heuer on his wrist. "How old is the gentleman? What is his favorite color?" he asks. "Does he like gold?" Then he responds rhetorically, "No, of course not, because he is under 50 years old. Only older men want gold."

With the deft hands of a blackjack dealer, he slips a felt board over the glass and plops down a stainless Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust. It is waterproof and winds itself with the movement of one's arm. Better yet: Patrick Rafter wears one.

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