Although James Bond sunglasses date back to Sean Connery’s time in the role, it is only recently that they have become a regular fixture. While it may go with the locations he’s travelling to, Bond has often visited tropical destinations without eye protection. While it is perhaps now seen as more fashionable to wear sunglasses, you just need to look at the recent Bond films and the number of products featured in them to realise that there is some other reason.
That reason is money and those products are appearing thanks to payment by the manufacturer. This is perhaps understandable because of the cost of a major movie these days, and the substantial payments that are often made help recoup a percentage of the total costs for the studios before the film has even premiered.
Sometimes it is a real shame, like James Bond wearing an Omega watch since Pierce Brosnan took over the role, instead of Rolex like the literary character and Sean Connery. Other products that fit better include the traditional Bond Aston Martin, although 007 drove a BMW for a while due to sponsorship too, but more recently another accessory has started to appear thanks to payment – sunglasses.
Calvin Klein started this with Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond in The World In Not Enough, when they promoted a model of sunglasses that tied in with the film and featured in a ski sequence – a pity for them then that the sunglasses that collectors wanted was a prop created for the film that provided x-ray vision to Bond.
Persol was next to sponsor 007 in Die Another Day and were still on board when Daniel Craig took over the role of James Bond in Casino Royale. In that film he wore two models of sunglasses, the Persol 2244 early in the film and Persol 2720 when he and Vesper arrive in Venice.
With Quantum of Solace it was inevitable that this trend continued – but what surprised 007 collectors was that the sunglasses were Tom Ford 108 rather than Oliver Peoples, which his glasses had been identified as during filming.