‘There’s a partnership between Omega and Bond, which is beneficial for both of us,’ explains Daniel Craig, ‘and I always thought that we should be talking to each other. It shouldn’t just be that you turn up on the first day of shooting and they say, “This is your watch.” I’m just not built that way.’

Craig has been playing 007 for nearly 15 years, ever since his debut in the role in Casino Royale in 2006. Now, to celebrate his fifth screen outing as the super spy in No Time to Die, there is a new timepiece: the Omega Seamaster Diver 300 M Co-Axial Master Chronometer 42mm 007 Edition. You can have it on a mesh bracelet (Grade 2 Titanium), or a Nato strap in beige or dark brown, so you can switch the look from in-the-field action to a dressy alternative. Which suits the two sides of 007’s image perfectly.

‘This watch has been an amalgamation of many discussions. I had suggestions, but Omega went away and ran with it. When they showed it to me, I genuinely said, “You’ve done it.”’

So what did he like about what they produced? ‘There’s the style of it, of course, but it’s also close to a military watch, and you have that heritage with Omega and the British army watches. All of those things I wanted, they’ve done it.’

The watch is slim and lightweight, created in Grade 2 Titanium, which was an added bonus for Craig. ‘I didn’t even notice that I was wearing a watch. We’re talking about a difference of grams, but it’s an incredibly comfortable watch to wear, I can genuinely say that.’

The classic 007 watch is a diving watch (he is, after all, a Commander in the Royal Navy). ‘Where Bond starts in No Time to Die, it makes complete sense,’ says Craig. ‘He’s sort of retired. He’s in Jamaica. He’s on his boat… The fact it’s a diving watch is great, because we hint that he’s diving in the first part of the movie. Plus, the strap [in titanium mesh] feels vintage in a kind of 1970s way: I really like that kind of touch. The vintage look of the new model is striking.

The 42mm case has a ‘brown tropical aluminium bezel ring and dial’. For Craig, the vintage look holds a kind of personal nostalgia. ‘My first Omega watch was given to me on my 18th birthday by my dad. It was a gold dress watch. I wore it so much, one of the arms came off and I lost it. That was my first proper watch, so I’ve always had a love for old Omegas.’

The new Seamaster has lots of secret codes too, as befits a secret agent’s timepiece. On the caseback the number 007 is self-explanatory, 0552 sits there too – the code-number specified for Navy personnel. 62 references 1962, the year of Dr. No, the first Bond movie. It is powered by Omega’s Co-Axial Master Chronometer 8806 movement, an impressive piece of engineering that boasts not only precision performance, but also magnetic resistance.

Omega Seamaster Diver 300 M Co-Axial Master Chronometer 42mm, £6,950; omegawatches.com. No Time to Die is out on 2 April 2021 in the UK