Das ist Hollywood!

Soon your movement will be fluttering across the screen in our upcoming Hollywood film. The screenplay with the DuBois et fils DBF008-01 has already been written; preparations are in full swing, although a little patience is needed before the film is realized. Finding a cast of convincing actors, organizing props, hiring cameramen and so on — a shoot involves a lot of work and is time consuming. In the meantime, however, we have taken the opportunity to find out more about the shoot location and surroundings. We will begin with Hollywood and have put together ten facts for you.

Tip: Remember these! As soon as you wear the DBF008-01 on your wrist, these “brain snacks” will become great conversation starters.

Interesting facts about Hollywood

Hollywood is a neighborhood belonging to Los Angeles, California. Numerous film studios, production companies and acting and casting agencies are based there. As a result, the neighborhood is considered the centre of the entertainment and film industry in the United States and the most important film metropolis in the world.

10 FACTS ABOUT HOLLYWOOD

  1. Husband and wife Harvey and Daeida Wilcox bought a piece of property with apricot and fig trees growing on it in Southern California and began building a housing development there — the beginnings of what is now Hollywood.
  2. Hollywood was founded in 1887, which was 102 years after the founding of DuBois et fils in 1785. Among other things, the two founders dreamed of living in a community with specific moral codes and included a ban on alcohol. Gambling was also prohibited and punishable. Instead, reliability and loyalty were declared to be the highest human values.
  3. California Holly, a shrub with red berries, is common in the region. Hollywood translates literally in German to "holly forest".
  4. Hollywood merged with Los Angeles in 1910. In 1911, the first film studio, the Nestor Company, was established in Hollywood. By 1915, the vast majority of American films were being produced in the Los Angeles area and the first Oscars were awarded and on May 16th, 1929. 
  5. The well-known letters "HOLLYWOOD" have adorned the Los Angeles landscape since 1949. However, the first letters (each 15 meters high) were installed in 1923. At that time, the lettering was illuminated as an advertising tactic for the real estate development ‘Hollywoodland’.
  6. Today, Hollywood no longer stands for just a district, but for internationally known films and the gathering place of celebrities. Moderate lifestyles and alcohol prohibition are long gone. The Prohibition Era in the USA, that time when alcohol was strictly prohibited and made infamous by the widespread criminal bootlegging of alcohol, inspired many filmmakers to create a new film genre, the gangster film, up to the late 1920’s. In today’s films, 87% of the protagonists’ drink alcohol. This figure comes from a study on "Trends in alcohol brand placements in top U.S. Movies, 1996-2015", in which the 100 most successful U.S. motion pictures of the past 20 years were scrutinized.
  7. Dream factory, Parties and Consumerism: Since the 1970’s, Hollywood has also been referred to pejoratively as "Tinseltown”. That word combines the two terms tinsel (glitter) and town.
  8. Watches appear again and again in Hollywood films. They not only complement an outfit and at the same time have a specific function, but also play a decisive influence on the character of the wearer. In Casino Royal in 2006, Daniel Craig as James Bond wore an Omega Seamaster Professional — as did Pierce Brosnan, who had already opted for a Seamaster with a blue dial in Golden Eye in 1995. In Top Gun in 1986, Tom Cruise drew attention by wearing a black Porsche Design chronograph, made by Orfina, a small specialist manufacturer in Grenchen. Many actresses, models and musicians have also helped shape certain brands. Elizabeth Taylor was given a curvaceous Bulgari "Serpenti" on the set of her famous 1962 film "Cleopatra", which she wore on her wrist from that time forward. Marlon Brando, in turn, appeared in the legendary film Apocalypse Now in 1979 wearing a Rolex GMT-Master, which fetched nearly $2 million at auction in 2019.
  9. The time zone in Hollywood is nine hours behind that of DuBois et fils and Switzerland (time difference: -9 h).
  10. There is another Hollywood in Worcestershire, England, but that one has no further connection with its American counterpart.

A total of 33 examples of our 330 tokenized movements will make an appearance in Hollywood, USA.

Your movement is one of them. It will be built into a watch model DBF008-01. At a later date, and under special conditions, you'll be able to purchase the finished watch in which your personal movement ticks. We’ll keep you up-to-date.

Best regards
Philippe DuBois & Fils SA