Timex

 

Seamaster pre Deville?

 

This one…

 

It was a Timex. It’s funny how he throws it away as if he’s leaving behind the materialism & schedules of traditional life to hit the road, but suddenly is sporting a gold Rolex GMT Master later on.

 

Y'know; I always thought that was weird too, but after getting into watches and seeing the flick again since, I've always kind of wondered, especially since the original cut was much longer and apparently contained a lot of the original 'plot details' - was that sort of Hopper (as director/co-writer) and Fonda (co-writer) quietly showing that, after getting all that money in the shady deal at the beginning, were they just on their way to becoming versions of what they thought they were getting away from? A way of saying the only way and times they're fully free is on the road, in a manner of speaking. Makes sense to me in a critical sense if you consider this era of film being so heavily beatnik influenced.

 

I think it was probably accidental. Peter Fonda bought the watch to celebrate having written the screenplay, as it was his first. He probably tossed the Timex because he didn’t want to throw his new Rolex, and as filming is rarely done chronologically, he just forgot and had it on in some scenes.

You’re dead on that it was beatnik / hippie inspired, I’m just not sure Hopper (director) and Fonda (writer, producer) were mature enough filmmakers to be thinking about the watch beyond throwing it down.

Just my theory. I’m probably wrong. We will never know because they’re all dead.

 

Good point; I forgot that was Fonda's first script.

Sad but true. Though makes me wonder what Nicholson would say - or maybe he'd just do that eyebrow waggle thingy...