The James Bond franchise focuses on the titular character, a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in 12 novels and two short-story collections.
 
The Bond films are renowned for a number of features, including their soundtracks (with the theme songs receiving Academy Award nominations on several occasions, and three wins); Bond's cars (usually – but not always – British); his firearms and gadgets (supplied by Q Branch); so-called “Bond Girls,” and – most importantly to us here – his watches (usually Rolex, Seiko, or Omega).  
 
A select number of watches have featured in Bond films unknown to the wider public, from Heuer and Tissot for instance.  And then there are watches that never made it in one of his films, but nevertheless wear the “007” badge – like this full-serviced 1965 Gilbert Company “007” manual-wound jump hour mechanical watch here, which features secret sighting lenses and a world time guide.
 
The jump hour, a century-old movement design, was made famous by Cartier in the 1930’s, with the design seldom seen in the modern era.  Amid the shift to battery-powered watches during the Seiko-initiated "Quartz Crisis" and the subsequent decimation of the Swiss watch industry, the jump hour wristwatch presented a distinctive alternative.  Unlike standard watches, a jump hour watch has a small window that displays the hour (and sometimes anothger window for the minute, like the Sicura jump hour watch here), which “jump” from one number to the next.
 
Given the date this Gilbert mechanical came out, it’s possible the watch here was produced as a promotional tool for the 1965 Bond film, “Thunderball,” starring Sean Connery.  The Bond film subsequent to this one, “You Only Live Twice,” with Connery reprising his role, was released two years later in 1967, making it less likely it was for this film.
 
The company that made the watch, A. C. Gilbert Company, also made the famous Erector Sets during the same era.  An American toy company, Gilbert was once one of the largest in the world, and it also made chemistry sets, microscope kits, and a line of inexpensive reflector telescopes.  Founded in 1909 by Alfred Carlton Gilbert, the company went from strength to strength, and in 1938, purchased the American Flyer, a manufacturer of toy trains.  However, several decades later, the Gilbert Company struggled after the death of its founder in 1961 and went out of business in 1967.  Its trademarks and toy lines were parted off, and subsequently sold to other companies (to include Lionel Corporation buying Gilbert's model train assets).
 
The James Bond character – also known by code number 007 aka "double-oh-seven" – is most famous for its film adaptations, and the James Bond franchise is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.  The films constitute one of the longest continually running film series and have grossed over $7.04 billion in total at the box office, making James Bond the fifth-highest-grossing film series to date, which started in 1962 with “Dr. No,” starring Sean Connery as Bond.
 
As of 2021, there have been twenty-five films in the Eon Productions series, with the most recent Bond film, “No Time to Die” (2021), staring Daniel Craig in his fifth portrayal of Bond; he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series.  
 
This Gilbert 007 mechanical comes with two nylon straps, springbar tool, and rugged travel case.