How the Watch in The Idea of You Became the Movie’s “Third Character”

Cam Wolf
·4 min read
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Alisha Wetherill

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And the Best Supporting Actor award goes to… the TAG Heuer Carrera in The Idea of You. The new rom-com, which hit theaters last week, follows gallery owner Solène (Anne Hathaway) as she falls for boy band member Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine). But the film plays out less like a classic romance and more like a Challengers-esque throuple, thanks to a series of conspicuous cameos from the iconic timepiece. “The TAG watch is the third character in the film,” said Karen Neasi, The Idea of You’s product placement coordinator.

The Carrera is a scene stealer in The Idea of You—a presence that demanded more airtime than originally planned. “It ended up being a bigger deal than we anticipated,” Neasi said. (Neasi and TAG both insist the watch’s inclusion is not a paid promotion, even though the movie feels at times like a two-hour-long commercial for the brand.) The watch and Solène come into Hayes’s life at the same moment. “We’ve got news,” the pop star’s manager says, as she bursts into Hayes’s trailer early in the film. “We got the TAG Heuer campaign.” (Interactions like this are now a realistic snapshot of life for the rich and famous, who are desperate for that watch-sponsorship bag.) From that moment, “the watch takes on a life of its own,” Neasi said.

<h1 class="title">The Idea of You</h1><cite class="credit">Courtesy of Prime</cite>

The Idea of You

Courtesy of Prime

The Carrera plays a significant symbolic role throughout The Idea of You. Doing his best George Constanza, Hayes leaves the watch after his initial hookup with Solène to occasion another meetup—although it takes a goofy music video shoot to get Solène into a middle coach seat (??) to New York to reunite with her pop star beau. After that, the watch is traded back and forth to the rhythm of Hayes and Solène’s romance. When they’re on, she has the watch; when they’re off, he does.

About the watch: it’s one of TAG’s simplest pieces. The 39-millimeter Carrera is nearly uniform in color. A stainless steel case and bracelet blend seamlessly into a smooth bezel and silver dial with matching indices and hands. The only element breaking up the monotone is a white date window at 6 o’clock. The simplicity was very much the point for Neasi.

Neasi hand-selected the TAG after rejecting a different watch brand that was initially supposed to have star billing—but wasn’t quite up to her standards. These original pieces were “not attractive, not cool, old man watches,” Neasi said. “I’m not placing them on a British rock star and Anne Hathaway, who’s supposed to be cool.” Instead, she got in touch with TAG, which scrambled to get the watch to set. “My prop guy had it in an hour from a store in Atlanta.” Neasi chose the watch, she said, because it was “sleek and cool—there's not a lot going on on the watch. Because he's British, he would have a classy watch but a cool watch.”

Neasi also needed a watch able to handle a multifaceted role. “I knew that Anne was going to end up with it as well, so I was conscious that she's an arty Silverlake mom gallery owner,” Neasi said. “It had to be a watch that would fit both [lifestyles].”

The Carrera fit that bill perfectly, to the point that The Idea of You has all but invented a whole new category for collectors to consider. The next time you’re buying a watch, after you’ve finished checking the crystal for scratches and inspecting the papers, don’t forget to ask yourself: Would this piece be able to handle a lusty, hot-and-cold, globe-spanning romance?

Originally Appeared on GQ

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