The first occasion we find James Bond wearing sunglasses is in From Russia With Love; after 007 finds Tania in his bed back at the hotel, he arranges to meet her the following day and tails her into a mosque to ensure she isn’t being followed. As he peels himself away from the back of a guided tour, Bond approaches the camera wearing what look like tortoiseshell sunglasses with brown lenses – on the Ultimate Edition DVD these scenes can be found at 53m 56s and 57m 31s. The shape is similar to Ray Ban Wayfarers, but there is no close-up to aid further identification.

The next James Bond sunglasses to appear are in Thunderball, perhaps unsurprising considering the tropical location. When confronting Domino with the news of her brother’s death, Bond hands her his wristwatch and dog tags; but more to the point, he is wearing black famed Wayfarer style sunglasses, although this time we can be certain they are not Ray Bans.

There are a couple of good shots on the Ultimate Edition DVD – at 1h 35m 32s and 1h 35m 50s – where you can see the hinge details.

Rather than being horizontally orientated bars on the front of the frame – as per Ray Bans – the hinge seems to be attached to the frame with two single points on each side, which are vertically orientated – if you’ve got the Blu-Ray edition of Thunderball then you should be able to see this more clearly and if you have an opinion as to what make of sunglasses these are please get in contact or leave a comment below.

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The first sunglasses to appear in a James Bond film weren’t actually worn by 007, but worn by one of his allies instead. Jack Lord, who played Felix Leiter in that first Bond film, looked super cool with his sharp sixties suit and eyes barely hidden by pale lenses.

In fact he looked so cool in Dr No that he landed the leading role in Hawaii Five-O, leaving a gap in the casting of future Bond films that was never quite filled. James Bond himself doesn’t wear sunglasses, although it’s difficult to understand why in the glare of the Jamaican sun.

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It seems strange that until relatively recently there were few examples of James Bond sunglasses for collectors to add to their portfolios, then suddenly in the space of a few films there were a whole handful of models from at least three different manufacturers.

In the books sunglasses rarely appear, so while we know the brand of watch, lighter, and even shampoo 007 favours we will never know his preferred brand of sunglasses – in fact probably the only time James Bond wears sunglasses is in the short story The Property of A Lady.

With the increased amount of placement in the movie industry it is perhaps surprising that this didn’t happen sooner, but in Casino Royale Daniel Craig wore the Persol 2244-S and Persol 2720-S models and in Quantum of Solace he wears Tom Ford 108 sunglasses.

Of course Daniel Craig wasn’t the first James Bond actor to wear sunglasses – Sean Connery wears some wayfarer style sunglasses in both From Russian With Love and Thunderball, but it was Pierce Brosnan who started the current trend.

Brosnan wears blue lensed X-ray specs in The World Is Not Enough – the glasses were off the shelf and the original lenses replaced with blue tinted ones instead – as well as a clear lensed Calvin Klein 718F in the banker’s office and CK 2007′s in the ski chase; he returned in Die Another Day, with Persol 2672-S.

So where does that leave us?

Unfortunately the sunglasses worn by Sean Connery haven’t been firmly identified, but Ray Ban or Persol of the right design should do; and Pierce Brosnan’s sunglasses are discontinued, although you can always try eBay.

Luckily the Persol and Tom Ford models are still available, so if you want to add James Bond sunglasses to your collection you still have a chance before they become unavailable and the prices rise to match.

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