Can there be any naysayers left out there on the MoonSwatch?
You know, the MoonSwatch.
The £218 bio-ceramic collab launched by watch bands Omega and Swatch last year, that resulted in people losing their minds, has been extensively covered everywhere from the New York Times to Hypebeast– as well as here and here – and has been called both “the biggest watch release in decades” and “a cultural phenomenon” without any whiff of hyperbole at all.
If there are still naysayers, one argument they might level is that the MoonSwatch was not a serious watch, whatever that means. Not the sort of watch you could wear with a bespoke suit to present an award to a glamorous actress at a gala Oscar season awards dinner, for example.
Well, Daniel Craig just showed them.
On Sunday evening Craig took to the stage at the National Board of Review 2023 Awards Gala in New York to present the award for Best Supporting Actress to Janelle Monáe for her role as Andi Brand in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a part that included the unimprovable line “If I ever meet Jared Leto, I am gonna whup his kombucha brewin’ ass”, and is now Netflix’s third-most watched film ever.
Craig, of course, played Detective Benoit Blanc – the second most iconic franchise character of his career.
“Are you kidding me? You guys got fucking James Bond?” said Monáe as she came on stage. We like Janelle Monáe.
Anyway, strapped to Craig’s wrist was The Mission To Neptune MoonSwatch – each of the 11 models in the series being named for a planetary body.
Craig is famously an ambassador for Omega. James Bond wore a succession of Omega Seamasters. Benoit Blanc wore a strikingly handsome Omega Seamaster 1948s in Glass Onion. And Craig himself likes to rock an Omega Speedmaster Professional in his downtime.
So what might we read into Craig’s choice of Neptune for his MoonSwatch, above say Venus, Jupiter, the Sun or, indeed, Uranus?
Perhaps that in astrology Neptune represents Pieces, his star sign?
Or that the watch is a powerful blue, like Craig’s own peepers?
Or perhaps that, also in astrology, Neptune is considered to be the lord of number 7, is symbolic for the number 7 and represents “all persons born under the 7”.
And, well, Craig has a bit of history with that number.
Then again, maybe we’re reading too much into it.
As Detective Blanc might say, “Physical evidence can tell a clear story with a forked tongue.”
Perhaps he just wanted in on the MoonSwatch hype.
Either way, it looked pretty great with a suit.
