In an unprecedented move during the live broadcast of the 89th Academy Awards yesterday, Rolex fired off a commercial, which, quite possibly is one of the most intelligent advertisements to grace modern media in recent memory.
The minute-long clip features 19 films from as far back as 1960 and as recent as 2013, with names as phenomenal as Paul Newman to Harrison Ford and even Marlon Brando. And the Rolex watches? They range from Bubblebacks to Submariners, with a healthy dose of GMT-Masters thrown into the mix.
What remains most impressive, though, is that in many of the instances, the appearance of these Rolex watches on the silver screen was purely organic. That is to say, these weren’t clever PR stunts devised to put Rolex watches on the wrists of famous actors and actresses. Or even to have them utter the name of Rolex, such as, in the case of Marlon Brando in the film The Fugitive Kind, where his character, Valentine ‘Snakeskin’ Xavier’s dialog includes the words “Rolex chronometer”. For many of these individuals, the watches featured were worn by personal choice.
And, so that you might be able to fully appreciate the people and the watches they wore on-screen, here’s two things you can do to help yourself: 1) Go read Jake Ehrlich’s comprehensive article on these individuals, the movies and the watches featured in the Rolex advertisement and; 2) rent all 19 movies on iTunes this weekend and watch them. We even took the liberty to find the films on iTunes for you and listed them in the order of their appearance, in the advertisement that is 😉
A Shot in the Dark (1964)
Peter Sellers as Inspector Jacques Clouseau (iTunes)
The Color of Money (1986)
Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson (iTunes)
Network (1976)
Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen (iTunes)
Frantic (1988)
Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Walker (iTunes)
Marathon Man (1976)
Dustin Hoffman as Thomas Babington “Babe” Levy (iTunes)
Speed (1994)
Dennis Hopper as Howard Payne (iTunes)
Apollo 13 (1995)
Unknown air traffic controller (iTunes)
Titanic (1997)
Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett (iTunes)
I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)
Jim Carrey as Steven Russell (iTunes)
The Fugitive Kind (1960)
Marlon Brando as Valentine ‘Snakeskin’ Xavier (iTunes)
The Deep (1977)
Nick Nolte as David Sanders and Jacqueline Bisset as Gail Berke (iTunes)
Dead Man Down (2013)
Terrence Howard as Alphonse Hoyt (iTunes)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Gabriel Byrne as Dean Keaton (iTunes)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Owen Wilson as Edward “Ned” Plimpton/Kingsley Zissou (iTunes)
Selma (2014)
David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr. (iTunes)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (iTunes)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Guy Pearce as Det. Lt. Edmund “Ed” Exley (iTunes)
Che: Part II (2008)
Benicio Del Toro Del Toro as Ernesto Che Guevara (iTunes)
The Mechanic (1972)
Charles Bronson as Arthur Bishop (iTunes)
