Ever wonder how watches get into movies? There are a number of ways, certainly, but the person who often chooses the watches and always puts the watches on the actors is the prop master. Doug Harlocker has been the prop master on such projects as ‘War of the Worlds’, ‘Oceans 12’, ‘Spider Man 2’, both ‘Men In Black’ movies, ‘The Patriot’ and many others. “Product Placement is an integral part of the movie making process,” he says. “Think of it in this way - let's say that I am working on a film where an A List actor has been cast in a role where his character can afford anything, one of the obvious accessories to express this with is his watch.”
How watches actually make it into any given movie is sometimes pure luck. “The Hamilton Ventura in Men in Black was a watch that I saw by accident just before a fitting with the actors and thought it perfect for that movie, the actors agreed....but it could very easily have been one of the other watches I had picked to show them,” he says. “Just because I like it doesn't mean that they will.”
As for final decisions, some directors will want to see what the prop master is offering up but most agree that the actors should choose, as it is, after all, their character.
“I love my job - I get exposed to the best that the world has to offer or has offered in the past,” Harlocker concludes. “Whether that means being sent to the Smithsonian (for ‘The Patriot’) or meeting a representative from Patek Philippe who has just flown in from Geneva to meet me in Rome to show me a watch, it's a great job.”

Source: Europa Star April-May 2007 Magazine Issue