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Alpha and Omega: Eddie Redmayne, film star and horophile, on how he spends his time

Eddie Redmayne -
Eddie Redmayne -

Eddie Redmayne finds everything intriguing. He uses the word repeatedly to describe everything from the rehearsal process (“the most intriguing part of my job, where you get to immerse yourself”) to the baby anteater that inspired his interaction with a CGI critter in JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (the beast in question being the niffler, a mole-like kleptomaniac which, like the anteater, is partial to a belly rub).

Redmayne extends the word enthusiastically, too, to the wristwatch that he’s wearing, a retro-styled Globemaster Annual Calendar from Omega – not least, as he puts it, for its “extraordinarily weird technical side, like the fact that it can take more magnetism than the entire world can throw at it”.

My father had an Omega De Ville, a beautiful gold watch with a leather strap, with that very classic quality you get from watches from the 1950s and 1960s

Redmayne is an erudite and likeable presence, especially compared to the prickly, often hesitant outsiders he’s tended to play onscreen, and his constant sense of fascination seems to come from a questing curiosity about whatever he’s involved in.

This makes him a particularly canny choice as an ambassador for Omega (alongside the likes of George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, no less). He’s become a stylish red-carpet mainstay, from the well-cut velvet dinner jacket of last year’s Oscars to a splendid Our Man in Havana-esque white linen suit he sported at Omega’s festivities at the Rio Olympics, where the brand was responsible for all the event timing. (Rio, of course, was “intriguing” too – “it was this whole other side of the Omega world – the pressure on the timekeepers, the technology they use”.)

More importantly, though, his enthusiasm for the watchmaker is genuine and palpable, stemming from an affection for the particular watch his father wore for decades in the City. “It was an Omega De Ville, a beautiful old gold watch with a leather strap, with that very classic quality that you get from watches from the 1950s and 1960s,” Redmayne explains.

Globemaster Annual Calendar
The Globemaster Annual Calendar

This made him all the more charmed by the Globemaster, with its old-school fluted bezel and “pie-pan” dial. “I love that it’s a kind of a throwback to that era, but it has a contemporary vibe to it too.”

Redmayne describes himself, unusually for an actor, as “aggressively punctual – my wife actually gets quite angry with me about it.” A born watch enthusiast, then? “When I got interested in watches it was really on a cosmetic level – I think there’s a quiet elegance to them, and yet an individuality that I find sort of wonderful,” he says. “But I’ve found the history so intriguing. Omega was supplying watches to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917; and of course there’s its involvement with Nasa and going to the Moon… it’s absolutely ripe with stories.”

Eddie Redmayne - Credit: Greg Williams
Eddie Redmayne Credit: Greg Williams

Redmayne’s own story is one that’s been building to a crescendo in recent times, with fatherhood and an OBE overlapping Oscar glory (winning for The Theory of Everything in 2015, nominated for The Danish Girl last year) and huge box-office success – Fantastic Beasts, which is anchored by Redmayne’s Newt Scamander, a wizard zoologist tracking down monsters in Depression-era New York, took more than US$800million.

After such a ride, it must be nice to have the next few years accounted for, with four Fantastic Beasts sequels apparently in the works. “Well, I’ve got an annual calendar watch, so that’ll help,” Redmayne quips, before admitting that, though always on time, he’s terrible with dates and planning.

“I’m in the hands of one of the great storytellers of the 21st century. Parts of Newt’s character began to be unpicked in the film, but I feel there’s a long way to go – and that in itself is intriguing.”

www.omegawatches.com

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