Archer’s Spy-Watch, John Travolta’s Sketchy Aerospace, A G-Shock in Speed, & The Kingsman Bremont Despite the massive delta between the on-screen antics of fictional spies and real-life intelligence officers, the link between watches, espionage, and film is strong and only getting stronger. It is often difficult to differentiate between fiction influencing reality and vice versa, but watches often play a significant role in the intersection of spycraft and Hollywood. From James Bond to Bodhi in Point Break to Jack Ryan to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Oscar-worthy portrayal of General Aladeen in The Dictator, the watches worn in popular films inspire members of the W.O.E. community as much as they do the broader public. We’ve explored watches in films before (read part one HERE and part two HERE), and  this is a topic that never gets old. In this Dispatch, we’ll share seven more examples of Hollywood Watches of Espionage, discussing the legitimacy or lack thereof in each watch selection. In watches and espionage, details matter. Archer - Omicron Spymaster We can’t vouch for all of the tradecraft displayed on Archer, the cartoon series showcasing fictional secret agent Sterling Malory Archer’s adventures working for the also fictional International Secret Intelligence Service, but he does wear an interesting watch. No doubt inspired by the Omega Seamaster used by James Bond since 1995’s GoldenEye, in Archer, the hard-drinking, womanizing secret agent trusts his life to the Omicron Spymaster, a gift from his mother, which offers not only basic timekeeping functions but also knockout gas, a garrote, and the occasional laser. Archer’s watch is also sometimes shown with a bracelet. Maybe Archer is a watch guy with a few strap options? Archer’s character is a comedic interpretation of how ridiculous “spies” in film and television have become over the years, so it’s only appropriate for the show to playfully poke at the role of wristwatches as “spy gadgets”. Given that Archer’s watch has also enjoyed several onscreen closeups, we can’t help but wonder if someone involved in the show is also a little bit of a watch nerd. If any capable microbrands are listening, we’d also love to see the Omicron Spymaster become a real thing. You’d be surprised how many real-life intelligence professionals enjoy an episode or two of Archer after a long day, and I think there could be a market. I know I’ll buy one. Broken Arrow - Breitling Aerospace In another example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, John Travolta wears a Breitling Aerospace in 1996’s Broken Arrow, a particularly important watch for the W.O.E. community. It’s also the model that set me on the watch-collecting path when King Abdullah of Jordan gifted me an Aerospace with a gold Royal Crown of Jordan on the dial. Getting back to the film, which was directed by 90s action movie legend John Woo, Travolta’s character is a double-crossing Air Force pilot and closeted terrorist who attempts to steal a pair of nuclear warheads he is carrying from Christian Slater’s character, the film’s hero. In at least one full-screen shot where the watch’s digital timer counts down to an explosion, we see Travolta’s two-tone titanium and gold Aerospace worn on a leather strap. The Breitling Aerospace in Broken Arrow counts down to a big explosion. Travolta is a known Breitling fan and official ambassador, but even so, the Aerospace is a perfect choice for his character in Broken Arrow, with the Aerospace having been among the top watches favored by military pilots of the era as well as today for its suite of digital timekeeping functions paired with a legible analog display. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Breitling made several custom unit watches for US pilot squadrons and was a leader in this space. Once again, we don’t make the rules. Kingsman - Bremont ALT-1B In 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, virtually every character in the film wears a Bremont watch, with the brand also producing a limited edition trio of special edition versions of the ALT-1B chronograph. Despite looking like the world’s most obvious paid product placement, the brand’s cameos in the film allegedly came at the request of director Matthew Vaughn, who said: “Kingsmen are first and foremost British, which made Bremont watches the perfect fit. Apart from making fantastic mechanical watches, Bremont has links to the military and their special forces around the world, making them the perfect timepieces for the modern spy.” While we are generally not inspired by paid product placement, this really does make sense. It’s difficult to argue with Bremont’s rapid rise in the W.O.E. community, especially in Britain. Bremont’s Military and Special Projects Division has produced over 500 customized unit watches for various military and government organizations, including several UK Intelligence Services (Maybe all of them?). In 2025, Bremont is admittedly in a tough spot after its 2023 investment from American billionaire Bill Ackman and the ensuing exit of the founders, Nick and Giles English. In the second installment of the Kingsman series, 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the horological focus shifted (or was sold) to TAG Heuer. A Working Man - Sangin Kinetic II In the vast majority of cases, when a watch is featured in a major film, it is because a large, well-known watch brand paid for the honor, making it truly rare for a watch from a “microbrand” to get its fifteen minutes of fame. However, that’s exactly what happens in 2025’s A Working Man, in which Jason Statham’s character wears a Kinetic II from Sangin Instruments, a brand founded by a Marine Raider. In the film, Statham’s character is a former British Royal Marine, so going with a Sangin makes a ton of sense, but it’s still surprising to see. The answer here is likely that the film’s director, David Ayer, is a watch nerd, but Sangin is still a deep cut despite having legions of fans among the military and law enforcement. That said, for a brand founded by a GWOT SpecOps veteran to get its moment in a major Hollywood motion picture without hundreds of thousands of dollars changing hands for product placement’s sake is a beautiful thing. Check out our profile of Sangin Instruments HERE. Body of Lies - Breitling Emergency Body of Lies is a 2008 CIA thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in which Crowe’s character, Ed Hoffman, wears a Breitling Emergency. More than just an analog-digital watch, the Emergency contained an emergency position indicating radio beacon or EPIRB that can be deployed in case of an emergency, broadcasting a radio signal that can be picked up by aircraft to effect a rescue. For Crowe’s character, Chief of CIA's Near East Division, and DiCaprio’s character’s boss, the Emergency is a perfect fit for someone who would have undoubtedly had a great deal of field experience. We’ve spoken at length about the Emergency when discussing the custom unit version produced by Breitling for Blackwater, the notorious private military contractor. While the characters in Body of Lies are on the Agency side as opposed to the private sector, suffice it to say that for practitioners within SpecOps and Intelligence of the era, the Emergency was a trusted option with a potentially life-saving party trick. Of note, the film is based on an incredible book by the same name, written by Washington insider David Ignatius. Speed - G-Shock DW-5600C-1V Another 1990s classic is the cinematic masterpiece that is Speed. While I might be dating myself here, this was the first R-rated movie I saw in the theater. Long before Keanu Reeves became the Hollywood good guy who bought Rolex Submariners for his entire John Wick stunt team, the actor had one of his biggest early roles in 1994’s Speed, the unlikely tale of a city bus rigged to explode if it drops under 50 MPH. Throughout the film, Reeves, who portrayed an LAPD SWAT officer, wears a G-Shock DW-5600C-1V, a nail-on-the-head pick for a police officer during the era. There’s nothing like a full-screen wrist shot. As we discussed in our history of the Casio G-Shock, unveiled in 1983, G-Shock presented an incredibly durable and inexpensive digital option that quickly found favor among law enforcement and the military, in many ways signaling the beginning of the end for analog watches in military circulation. The descendant of the watch worn by Reeves in Speed, the DW5600-1V, is one of four G-Shocks to have earned an NSN or NATO Stock Number, making the watches readily available for purchase by and issue to military units. Now and then, Hollywood nails it, and Reeves’s G-Shock in Speed is a great example of getting a character’s watch exactly right. – As always, if you have other Hollywood Watches of Espionage you’d like us to mention in a future edition of this series, be sure to share them with us in the comments. If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE. Read Next: Hollywood Watches of Espionage, Part II

Sangin Instruments - The Marine Owned “Raider Rolex” I first heard of Sangin Instruments during TDY travel to a WarZone while at CIA.  At the time I was responsible for a counterterrorism Covert Action program in the Middle East and I was traveling to visit the program on a flight with other CIA officers.  (REDACTED PARAGRAPH) The atmosphere on the plane was a Star Wars bar vibe, with bearded paramilitary officers, support personnel and analysts, all dressed in civilian clothing that varied from business casual to a college campus look and of course the obligatory new camping gear from REI.  Like most things at CIA, rules were relaxed and the plane filled with professionals who didn’t need to be told which rules actually mattered. During a refuel stop in a European country, I struck up a conversation with the individual sitting next to me who I assessed (correctly) was a GRS (Global Response Staff) contractor reading a book on the Rhodesian Bush War. The conversation moved from evolution counterterrorism tactics, the ongoing conflict in our destination country and finally watches. The operator asked about the Rolex Submariner on my wrist, and was quick to interject that he used to wear his Sub during deployments but lost it in a recent divorce, so now wears a Sangin watch. He then launched into a passionate pitch for the company and an overview of what the Sangin brand represents. Sangin in the wild during Orion space capsule recovery (Sangin community photo) At the time, my interest in watches was surface level. But during that trip and following deployments I began to notice Sangin Instruments on the wrists of SpecOps personnel, CIA paramilitary officers, and other case officers.  In the business we call this a pattern. Like many watch companies, Sangin was a subculture in itself. Very much a “if you know, you know” type thing. I wanted to learn more about the watch that seemed to keep appearing on the wrist of professionals in this world. So I reached out to one of the two founders, Jacob Servantes to learn about how the company came to be.   (Sangin community photo) Sangin Instruments  Watches are a medium for stories, but for Jacob Servantes, Marine Raider and founder of Sangin Instruments, they provided even more.  “You come out of the military depressed as hell. At the professional level we were at, a lot of what you do becomes who you are. And when you leave, the machine just keeps going . . . so Sangin gave me a lot of purpose out of the military.” Servantes enlisted in 2008 as the economy was crumbling, hoping to earn some money for college on the other side of his service. The goal was to follow his father’s footsteps and become a Reconnaissance Marine.  At the time, he wasn't aware that a restructuring in 2006 would mean that elements of the Marine Corps would participate in SOCOM, resulting in MARSOC. He ended up squarely in the special operations community.  A rare photo of Jacob on deployment in Afghanistan. It was during selection that he walked away with his first lesson that he would incorporate into Sangin Instruments–become the new standard.  Become the New Standard Not much was publicly known about the Raider selection process, and that’s by design. But Servantes recounted the biggest takeaway was that the standard to be selected by the instructors only moved in one direction: it became harder and harder. When Marines rose to the standard, and exceeded it, their standard became the new standard. “We used to joke that the mattress fairy would take people away at night, because every night you would see fewer and fewer people,” Servantes recalled. In his class, a group of 120 hopeful Marines were deposited in an undisclosed location somewhere in North Carolina. 25 people were selected after a grueling three weeks and countless miles of rucking/team events. Each class sets the standard for the next class, meaning that the standard is constantly being raised. It always gets harder, and that idea is something Servantes has incorporated into the way Sangin Instruments does things, “selection is continuous.” (Sangin community photo) Sangin, Afghanistan The name of Servantes’ company comes from Sangin, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, an area along the Helmand River Valley where the Commando team he worked on spent much of their deployment. Sangin is a place that many who served during the GWOT will be familiar with, and it was known as “the most dangerous place in the world for multiple years running–the hospital on base was the busiest hospital, anywhere, at the time.” Servantes says. That’s part of why he chose the name Sangin Instruments. “Sangin is a horrible place in the world–many guys attribute awful memories to Sangin, but they’ll carry this name with them and hopefully have a positive memory about breaking down barriers, and their own sacrifices and achievements.”  (Photo Credit: James Rupley) Building a watch company is not for the fainthearted and bringing the brand to life was an achievement in itself. It almost didn’t happen. But the can-do attitude prevailed. He got back from a deployment and told his wife that he’d put in his time with special operations. During his time in the Middle East and the Philippines, he wore a M-1 Breitling Chrono Avenger (sketchy) and several Digital Tool Watches. While deployed, he'd been thinking about watch designs based on the work he was doing. He tested the market among his friends and colleagues in the military and conceptualized a watch that would be affordable and capable. A watch that would stand up to the type of work they were doing while also speaking to the community.  Watches Built For Warriors Servantes’ wife, Paris, bought the idea. This was 2017. After some help from his mentor, Bill Yao of popular watch microbrand MK II, they had a prototype. And following the evaluation of the prototype, Sangin launched a successful pre-sale that would help fund the initial batch of 250 watches called the Kinetic 1. The only problem was that Paypal held the funding without explanation and would not release it to obtain the watches. Paris reached into her savings and a small inheritance; Servantes had his bonus from his last Afghanistan deployment. Between them, they scraped together the cash and bet big on Sangin Instruments working out. They were in a squeeze, but Servantes had a steadfast partner in his wife, who learned how to do Quality Control on all the watches and packaged them up and answered customer emails while he was in business school. W.O.E.’s personal Sangin Overlord Believing in Sangin Instruments paid off, but it was never the plan–the primary objective was to take care of the community and make a product to be proud of. The first round of watches was delivered and the phones haven’t stopped ringing since.  “Part of the culture of watches in general is wanting to have a part of something you’ve done. So when these guys leave the military, they can take a piece of that experience with them,” Servantes says of his watches.  (Sangin community photo) Sangin Today  Today, Sangin boasts an impressive line of watches, from the entry level quartz Overlord to the premium newly released Hydra, Sangin’s interpretation of a mid-century compressor-style diver's watch. The community remains an important part of Sangin’s identity with customers demonstrating a near religious fervor as they wait for the next release. Sangin also offers several watches that must be earned.  The “Para” Overlord is only available to members of the airborne community and would-be customers must submit a certification verification.  The green bezel Atlas and Neptune are available only to those who have completed a SOF selection course, red for first responders and blue for law enforcement personnel.  They are tools for professionals. Jacob was mum on the ongoing special projects “unit watches” but a custom Professional made for the CIA Directors Protective Staff (DPS) was recently for sale on Ebay (but quickly disappeared without explanation).  Suffice to say, we are aware of several special projects for units in the IC and SpecOps community but cannot go into details at this time. Ebay listing of Sangin Professional for the CIA’s Directors Protective Staff. (Ebay)  Sangin Instruments - “With You” As Sangin grows, Servantes makes sure that giving back and taking care of the community he comes from is part of it. Servantes has developed watches that specifically speak to a community of men and women who serve. As he grew the business, an unlikely presence in the watch world supercharged the number of people interested in Sangin. “Rolex helped us out with their price point and availability. You have a lot of Green Berets who finally could afford a Rolex but just couldn't get them. And here we were offering something specifically for them,” he says.  Informally, many refer to Sangin watches as the “Raider Rolex.” Now Servantes will run into guys who tell him that they have a few deployments on their watch, and the memories of service are imbued into the timepiece. That’s exactly what makes Servantes and Paris continue to push Sangin forward. A part of the Sangin Instruments mission that Servantes doesn’t publicly put forward is his support of important nonprofits contributing to those in the veteran community, including HunterSeven Foundation, Special Operations Care Fund (SOC-F) and Vigilant Torch. One of the altruistic motivations of the W.O.E. platform is preserving watch culture in the NatSec community. No one has done more to further this end than the team at Sangin Instruments. Many of us came up in the GWOT days where digital watches were the norm. Sangin offers a great way for professionals to get into watches in an unpretentious manner. -- If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE.  This Dispatch has been reviewed by the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information. READ NEXT: Demystifying a North Korean State-Sponsored Luxury Wristwatch Awarded to High-Ranking Officials