Back in 2009, an extremely charming animated movie called “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was playing in the theaters. I remember seeing the trailers and thinking that it would be a movie that I would love to see one day. Well, that “one day” turned out to be almost 8 years later during a weekly movie night with one of my best watch pals, Scott. It seems that our tastes in films run almost opposite of each of our wive’s preferences so we have made it our mission to pick movies from our backlog of “must-see” films.
Our interests run the gamut from car films to creature flicks… from sci-fi to comedy… from art house films to animated movies. The animated films can include serious Japanese anime like Akira or computer generated cartoons. Heck, even “Sausage Party” snuck into one of the viewings and that is decidedly not high-brow. We also have a soft spot for stop action movies like Wallace and Grommet and the movies coming out of the Laika Studios.ย Scott and I went to art school together back in the neon 90s, and digesting other artists’ creative works recharges our batteries.
You might be wondering why I am writing an article about “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” a witty fantasy starring woodland animals and 3 farmers who would like to see them skinned. Instead of me giving a synopsis, just roll the film below… I’ll wait.
As you can see, the world of Mr. Fox is tactile… no CGI to be seen here. That means fur moves and individualย hairs can be seen. Eyeballs glisten showing lightย sources and cloth has texture from tweed to knits… and it is all bathed in gloriousย cinematic light. Not only is the story visually stunning, but they got top-tier Hollywood talent to voice the characters including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson… to name a few. The combination is a dazzling display of humorous storytelling with great acting. This is an amazing achievement and the animators should be proud bringing their furry puppets to life.
However, none of this movie magic could happen without the skills of model makers who hand constructed the detailed characters, sets, and props. These guys built everything from cities, supermarkets, underground tunnels and anything you can think of that inhabits the real world… only smaller. And this is where watches come into our story. This is a watch blog so I had better stick to the subject.
Gentleman… synchronize your watches!
During one scene of the film, a motley crew of critters ledย by Mr. Fox is hatching a daring plan… I won’t spoil the fun here. To my surprise, several wristwatches were shown in succession. This was of course during the scene that starts with “gentleman,ย synchronize your watches”. Any fan of war movies will recognize this because a lot of missions require split-second accuracy… There is a wide variety of watches on display and I can’t help but think that each timepiece was chosen to represent each character… even if just slightly. The lawyer badger is checking a pocket watch.
The beaver’s watch is a Chesterton Perpetual gold dive watch with a hint of Rolex…. aka Oyster Perpetual…
A very fancy Chesterton Perpetual watch
The mole’s watch is a Time-Date digital…
A digital date-time watchย
The field mouse is wearing aย Field Accurate watch… clever.
The famous “Field Accurate” watch
And most importantly, a Seiko-style Calculator Watch for Fantastic Mr. Fox. This is not by accident because the character is always calculating how to pull off his stunts and feats of derring-do.
Mr. Fox prefers a digital watch…
A closer look at the calculator watch shows some great detail, but also a few things left off. Notice that only buttons for the numbers, multiply and subtract are shown. The buttons for addition, division, equals, decimal point are missing… most likely due to size limitations. Many calculaor watches had at least 16 buttons.
Mr. Fox’s calculator watch
Do I think that the inclusion of these watches was an accident? Not a chance. The director of Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wes Anderson, and I have heard talk of another one of his movies, The Life Aquatic on The Grey NATO podcast. That one is chock full of 1970s vintage diving watches. If I ever met Mr. Anderson, I would ask him if he is a watch nerd. I’m betting it’s a distinct possibility. For now, just rent the movie… it’s definitely worth it and seeing homages to watches adds icing to an already delicious adventure.
