International collectors know that Dell Deaton currently curates a permanent gallery at the National Watch & Clock Museum in Columbia PA and that he has been organizing exhibits for that center as a subject matter expert since 2008.
Later this month he’ll return there to deliver a presentation on the role of the Internet on wristwatch collecting. He’ll also be premiering a brand new display there, titled “James Bond Originals.” [1,2,3]
Exotic and distant as the fictional adventures of Agent 007 invariably seem, Saline Michigan ties of “Bond’s” real-world watch choices are just as engaging. For example, in 2010, Dell hand-couriered from London the only surviving James Bond watch owned and worn by author Ian Fleming. That priceless timepiece was kept at a secure location in the City of Saline for several weeks before we took it on to Pennsylvania for a five-year showing.
All advance PR photography for that special gallery opening was completed here in Saline as well. [4]
“Our security and insurance plan called for me to have that Rolex on my person at all times until it could be safely locked away,” Dell Deaton recalled. “I literally wore it on my wrist like any other any other watch, and that’s where it was as I arrived at DTW. When I turned my cell phone back on after clearing Customs, there was a message for me to stop by Harvest Elementary where my son was in school at the time.
“I remember running into David Raft in the area outside the offices, and we talked for a bit. But ‘the watch’ that I was wearing didn’t come up in that conversation.”
For the 2017 “Originals” opening, arrangements were made to show the original Breitling for Bentley chronograph worn by author Jeffery Deaver as one of the designated James Bond watches in his novel, Carte Blanche.
More particularly, that wristwatch came through Authorized Dealer Lewis Jewelers right here in Ann Arbor. David Lewis and his team were invaluable in helping us help Mr Deaver identify the watch featured in his novel. Lewis Jewelers is also the source for the two James Bond Omega watches currently being shown at the National Watch & Clock Museum. [5]
Earlier this year, James Bond fans received welcome news that the next motion picture has an official release date of November 8, 2019 — with Daniel Craig once again returning as Ian Fleming’s Agent 007. And there’ll be no better place to see that movie than Emagine Theatre here in Saline.
“Emagine Entertainment is excited to support Dell Deaton’s upcoming presentation featuring the history of James Bond watches,” said Emagine Saline owner, Paul Glantz. “Dell is like a real life ‘Q’ and we’re hoping he’ll help us find a watch that makes popcorn.”
The live presentation by Dell is part of the National Watch & Clock Museum TIMEtalks series and is titled “The Internet Made James Bond Watches Collectable.”
Museum Director Noel Poirier explained the importance of this focus by saying, “I think looking at this subject through the prism of James Bond’s timepieces is a great start to the conversation of hat role the Internet and its volumes of web sites and so-called experts can have on the collecting field.
This is not only unique to the watches of James Bond, but can be seen in virtually every area of modern collecting.
Dell has a long-established reputation as the foremost resource for all things related to James Bond watches and, as such, the Museum values Dell’s knowledge, not just of Bond watches, but of the watch collecting field as a whole.
Having Dell here, knowing the great exhibits he’s done for the Museums and his connections within the James Bond community, reinforces that the Museum takes a serious approach to the scholarship in collecting that Dell represents. [6]
It’s an additional honor to share this original content and to be responsible for opening a second brand new display in support of the forty-year anniversary of the National Watch & Clock Museum, which will be celebrated on November 29, 2017.
This Museum is located approximately 500 miles east-southeast of Saline, near Harrisburg Pennsylvania.
References
- National Watch & Clock Museum (home page).
- “Dell Deaton explains ‘James Bond Watches’ at the National Watch and Clock Museum” Hodinkee (September 19, 2010) Vimeo.
- “Bond Watches, James Bond Watches” exhibit (June 2010 to May 2011) “A View to a Kill” Seiko watches display (image) National Watch & Clock Museum.
- “Watches kept James Bond on time and fashionable” Barbara Miller Beem (January 1, 2018) Antique Week.
- “An Original James Bond Watch Was Displayed in Ann Arbor Last Month” Dell Deaton (December 3, 2011) Saline Journal.
- “James Bond Wore the Quartz Revolution (exhibit)” Dell Deaton (June 1, 2015) Vimeo.
