In Day of the Jackal, a contemporary update of Fredrick Forsyth’s 1971 book of the same name, Eddie Redmayne plays ‘the Jackal,’ a master of disguise, someone who is really, really good at using a sniper rifle, a family man with a dark secret who is plunged into the perilous underbelly of International espionage and geopolitics. And, if you pay attention, he does it all while wearing some of our favourite high-end best replica Omega watches – we promised there would be no other Bond comparisons.
As a long-time Omega ambassador, it’s hardly surprising that Redmayne was able to slip in some of his own watch preferences, including one of our favourite takes on an under-appreciated classic: the Railmaster, a stainless steel tool online replica watches, first launched in the ’50s, that was – clue in the name – designed for railroad employees. A 40mm case and a black fabric strap give it a low-key luxury appearance that wouldn’t blow your cover if you were deep in the field.
“Although he’s a contemporary assassin, Eddie and I were keen to express the analogue nature of the Jackal’s methods and preparation,” says the show’s costume designer Natalie Humphries on how the team settled on what UK shop copy watches would appear on-screen. “A precision timepiece was essential.”
“The high quality fake Omega Railmaster felt like the perfect expression of the Jackal,” she adds. “It was created in 1957 to resist strong magnetic fields and was favoured by railroad workers, pilots and engineers who needed a reliable instrument in electro magnetic environs. The elegant economic design perfectly complemented the aesthetic we were creating for the Jackal. Whilst it isn’t a NATO strap the fabric strap and black face are a nod to a military sensibility and training.”
As well as the hero Railmaster, the Jackal also pops up doing assassin business around the globe in a handful of other, slightly different, grail Omegas. There’s an Aqua Terra with a subtle sun-blushed dial, a versatile sort of stainless steel sport watch that could also be worn with tailoring if you needed to infiltrate a nice restaurant and charge the bill to MI6, as well as an ultra-aspirational luxury fake Omega that Humphries and her team utilised to allude to the Jackal’s chameleonic existence.
“It was important that each UK cheap super clone watches perfectly reflected the idiosyncrasies of the varying characters and guises the Jackal embodies,” says Humphries. “We explored many brands and models contemporary and vintage across the series.”
“Not all were expensive,” she adds, “for example, the janitor in the opening sequence wears a broken down digital Casio watch. The watches needed to reflect the economic reality of each character. In Episode 2 as Thirsk, the Jackal walks into an exclusive bank to make polite enquiries about the origin of a vast sum of money appearing in his bank. We wanted the costume to speak of quiet refined luxury… so here he wears the elegant Swiss made replica Omega Globemaster in 18ct gold with a brown leather strap.”
But, all important question, did Redmayne have a say in the AAA replica watches that he wore? “Eddie, in many ways, is as meticulous as the Jackal!” adds Humphries, remaining coy.
After all, a good spy never reveals all of their secrets.
