Absolute Gadget: How tall are you in real life?
Richard Kiel: Seven-two.

And they’ve made a Swatch watch in the image of your James Bond character Jaws...
It’s quite a lovely watch. It’s very large and it has teeth in the band. It’s quite nice actually, it’s very subtle. And it fits me really well, it’s a real man’s watch.

Is that a nice tribute?
Yeah, it is. I had a Jaws figure in a presentation box made for Moonraker and one from the Twilight Zone as well. So it’s kind of neat. The grandkids love having them and my oldest son got one of the watches too. I like the combination because Bond’s been around for 45 years and the Swatch watch company has been around for 25 years and like Bond is hugely successful. They’ve made a third of a billion watches, all made in Switzerland, so it’s a good product.

Do you have any particular favourite Bond gadgets?
Well, I love the underwater car – the Lotus that went down in the water. That’s a classic. It was bigger than life. And my little boy at the time was almost two and he’s the little boy on the beach that points to the car and says, ‘Oh my God, there’s a car coming out of the water!’ He doesn’t remember that because he was only two years old, but I think it’s kind of fun. It’s nice when you can make that happen.

(Continued on next page)