While watching Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer,’ it would be hard for anyone to miss the pivotal countdown in the film. One that changed millions of lives forever. It is quite imperative that J. Robert Oppenheimer’s story centres around this very countdown, and time shifts once the countdown runs out, changing the world forever.
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- Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer Watches Were Made By Hamilton To Match J. Robert’s Real Collection
- How Did The Watch End Up Killing The Woman Who Painted Its Dials?
Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer Watches Were Made By Hamilton To Match J. Robert’s Real Collection
Hamilton
Time, or more accurately, the countdown, plays such an important part in the film. One could not help but notice the incredible detail Nolan had not missed incorporating into the film. The wristwatch Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer wears in the film is yet another masterstroke on Nolan’s part.
The film is set in the 1940s, and Murphy’s costume design is accordingly taken very seriously. In ‘Oppenheimer,’ the actors Murphy, Matt Damon (who plays Lieutenant General Leslie Groves), and Emily Blunt (who plays Kitty Oppenheimer) all wear watches made by the Swiss company Hamilton. This company started in the 1890s in Pennsylvania, USA.
Murphy’s Robert J. Oppenheimer wears a trio of watches in the film. Even though Hamilton has a long history, it seems they weren’t satisfied with the watches available in their own museum.
Instead, they reached out to their group of passionate fans and collectors to find six old-fashioned watches from the 1930s and 1940s. They used these vintage references to make the watches just the way they wanted them for the film.
How Did The Watch End Up Killing The Woman Who Painted Its Dials?
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The story of the film follows the first successful launch of the atomic bomb. However, it is not only the bob that could upset the readings on the Geiger counter but also the trio of wristwatches Oppenheimer possessed.
His Hamilton watches contained luminous paint on their dials, which would help him keep track of time even in the dark. The glow in his dials was no ordinary LED fitting like modern-day creations. The glow in the dials came from the addition of a radioactive element, Radium, to the paint.
The Radium in the watch did not affect Oppenheimer’s life span, but it did shorten the lifespan of the women who had painted the dials in the factory. Seeing the devastation it caused, the use of Radium was ultimately banned in 1968, a year after Oppenheimer passed away.
The ladies who painted the dials got exposed to the element because they used their tongues to sharpen the ends of their brushes for precise strokes without realising that they were indeed ingesting radioactive substances, which would eventually prove fatal.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn