Christian Bale is, and will forever remain, a fascinating human being and we have his latest movie, Amsterdam, to look forward to. Like Tom Hardy, Bale's private persona has always been at odds with the immense presence he creates on the big screen. From the worryingly emaciated Machinist through to being buff in Batman Begins, he has set a high bar for cinematic physical transformations.
But when it comes to Christian Bale’s choice of watches, he's typically steadfast. His timepieces fit his understated personality – in fact, we wouldn't be surprised if his method acting had him overruling stylists to ensure his wrist spots were on point.
Playing Batman, Christian Bale followed Val Kilmer in wearing the most fitting watch for the role. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso has had a serious upswing in the cool stakes since the introduction of matching bright colours and straps, as the Small Seconds Tribute now shares a lion's share of the rectangular watch sector with Cartier's Tank. Indeed, the Reverso Grande Date 8 Days matches Bruce Wayne's split personality to a tee with its flippable dark side.
Over the years – decades even – Bale’s off-screen premiere fit is always understated and tends to involve a lot of suave black-on-black couture, sometimes with a touch of the blues. He's not one to wear watches often but like Tom Cruise, he’s been spotted wearing the lesser-seen Calibre de Cartier with a rose gold case. This was the first Cartier to be fitted with its in-house caliber 1904 MC and remains in his collection, which also includes a Cartier Drive in steel, albeit it's usually well hidden under Bale’s cuff. A one-brand man, another slim alternative we've seen Bale wearing that sets him apart from the Rolex crowd is a blue-dial Cartier Santos 100.
Similar to his understated wardrobe and penchant for wispy beards, when it comes to watches the strong contrast to his dominating movie characters seems a conscious decision. On two occasions he's sported the instantly recognisable yellow gold Rolex President Day-Date – first stacking it with gold bracelets for the larger-than-life role of Irving Rosenfeld in 2013's American Hustle.
Then fast-forward to 2018's Vice, through a fascinating combo of weight gain and make-up, Bale was barely recognisable as Dick Cheney, while again rocking a yellow gold Presidential Day-Date. For this Bale was afforded no artistic licence as Cheney himself is known for being the first vice president to wear a Presidential Day-Date while in office.
Most of us probably still get the chills remembering his intense portrayal of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho more than 20 years ago. And while the role was memorable for plenty of hair-raising reasons, it's recently been discovered that the film is guilty of arguably the biggest inaccuracy in cinematic history when it comes to watch-spotting. Contrary to popular belief, even GQ's belief, and despite an uncanny resemblance, the watch on Bale's wrist throughout American Psycho was not a two-tone Rolex Datejust. As has only recently been discovered, the Swiss crown apparently did not want to be associated with Bret Easton Ellis’ murdering psychopath – fair enough – so Bale was in fact wearing a very similar-looking and rather pedestrian two-tone Seiko 5 (SNJX90). Well, we'll be damned. What we love most about this story though, is that Bale would have known this himself all along. He just never cared to mention it.
