Feature: The watches of Mad Men
Don Draper, Roger Sterling and the rest of the so called “Mad Men” of the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency influenced a generation of 21st-century males who bought into the impeccable sartorial ethos of New York’s Madison Avenue in the 1960s.
Slim ties, immaculate suits and pocket squares folded to origami precision were suddenly back in style, all of which was finessed with accessories such as tie-bars, cufflinks and, of course, great watches.
Indeed, Mad Men was probably the first TV series to give careful consideration to the lead characters’ timepieces, many of which were provided by Derek Dier, a vintage watch specialist based in Canada, who ensured the wristwear was on-point.
Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, was the show’s lead and by the end of the final series had accumulated something close to a collection—but he wasn’t the only cast member who got to wear some vintage classics…
Roger Sterling wore: Tudor
As one of the partners of the agency, Roger Sterling (played by John Slattery) exudes confidence and wealth, with a dress sense to boot. Always impeccably suited, you might expect him to wear a Patek Philippe Calatrava or a Rolex Day-Date. But then Sterling is a man with little to prove, so his Tudor dress watch with a tuxedo dial isn’t too jarring a choice.
Roger Sterling wore a Tudor dress watch like this one, albeit on a black strap. Image: Courtesy of Bonhams
He’s a man who buys what he likes, not what he thinks others expect of him, and besides, the watch complements the monochrome wardrobe of a high-flying businessman who spends as much time at black-tie events as he does in the conference room.
The fact that it says “Oyster Prince” on the dial would also resonate with his sense of entitlement, his late father having co-founded the company.
Don Draper wore: Jaeger Le-Coultre, Rolex and Omega
Throughout Mad Men’s seven seasons, the womanising Don Draper struggled to be faithful to either of his wives, and he was no different with watches. He wore four models by three different brands, all of which would now be shop-window material for any vintage watch seller.
In earlier seasons he wore a Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox, its alarm function no doubt useful for a man who wakes up in New York hotel rooms as often his own house. By Season 2, we’ve learned about his dual identity, making his new acquisition, a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso with its concealable dial, highly symbolic.
A contemporary Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso similar to Don Draper's
The fourth season sees Don gravitate to Rolex, choosing a no-frills Explorer, before ending the last few seasons with an understated black-dial Omega DeVille.
All four models comprise a faultless mini-collection which might have felt a little more complete had he also acquired a dual-time watch for all those trips to California. Had there been an eighth season, Draper would surely have invested in a GMT-Master.
Ken Cosgrove wore: Hamilton
Series 3 begins in the spring of 1963, six years after the US brand Hamilton released the world’s first series-produced electric wristwatch. Initially three models housed this new movement: the Spectra, Van Horn and Ventura, the latter a favourite of Elvis Presley. It was also worn with pride by the boyish account executive, Ken Cosgrove, who delights in telling his colleagues that he was gifted one by his client, Birds Eye.
Hamilton's electric Ventura once looked like the future of horology
Cosgrove did well to score a freebie; these models tended to sell for around $200 at the time, far more than what you’d pay for the average Swiss watch. That said, these very early electronic models (battery powered but with a traditional gear train and balance) were so beset with problems that it was a while before they were considered a threat to the mechanical variety.
Incidentally, this was the second time a Hamilton watch got airtime on Mad Men (see below), although its US rival, Bulova, is name-dropped in several episodes.
Pete Campbell wore: Hamilton
To be clear, Hamilton, formerly a US brand, never officially called this watch the Sputnik, which was the name of the first satellite launched by the Soviet Union. To have done so would have meant commercial suicide at the height of a space race between the two countries. It was the American public who later gave it this moniker on account of its round case with lugs jutting out at unusual angles, which resembled the orb-shaped satellite.
Hamilton's "Sputnik" got its nickname from its resemblance to a Russian satellite. Image: Flickr
But it’s definitely a watch befitting the duplicitous Pete Campbell, who Don Draper considered more of an adversary than an ally. Thanks to its Mad Men appearance, Sputniks are now among the more collectable vintage Hamilton models, selling for upwards of $1k.
