With No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond film and Daniel Craig’s final stint as the famous fictional spy finally hitting cinemas next week, speculation over who’s going to
replace Craig as Bond has been rife.
Of course, there’s one actor who’s been tipped to take up the mantle of Bond longer and louder than anyone else: Idris Elba. It’s not hard to see why, either, as Elba would be a perfect fit. The 49-year-old Londoner has built a successful career out of playing tortured men of action, from the namesake role in TV’s Luther to most recently, the antihero Bloodsport in the DC Extended Universe film The Suicide Squad.
So if you’re going to play Bond, you need a stealthy timepiece… And while Craig might have rocked OMEGAs, it seems Idris would rather return to Bond’s roots and wear a Rolex. But not just any Rolex. Elba was spotted during London Fashion Week wearing a murdered-out Rolex Datejust II customised by Black Venom – probably the stealthiest Rolex ever made.
Although he somewhat undermined the stealthiness of his watch by pairing it with a neon yellow sweater. You could see that bloody top from space, mate.
Images: Getty / Black Venom
Black Venom is an Italian luxury watch customiser that tricks out watches from a wide variety of brands, including Audemars Piguet, Bulgari, Cartier and Patek Philippe, but they specialise in customising Rolexes.
Elba’s Rolex is one of a limited edition of only 35, and features a DLC (diamond-like carbon) coating: a durable, scratch-resistant material that’s not only incredibly black and has an attractive matte finish, but is also hypoallergenic and cool to the touch. It’s not cheap, though: if you want a Black Venom Datejust of your own, it’ll set you back €13,500 (a €4,900 premium over Rolex’s MSRP).
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Third-party customised watches like this one divide watch fans. While some watch fans appreciate their unique takes on luxury watches, others truly revile them, arguing that they cheapen (both aesthetically and literally) a watch and are a hallmark of bad taste.
Still, you wouldn’t dare say that sort of thing to Idris’ face… You’d be likely to be punched in the jaw with the damn Rolex, à la Bond in Fleming’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Duppy.