The Unlikely Watch Collector: Columbo Part 2 – The Victims & Villains

Many of the murders in Columbo are elaborately planned and meticulously executed within an ultra-tight timeframe. Columbo villains have used a Lucerne digital jump hour watch, a Casio MQ-24, a Hanhart chronograph, and a Timex Viscount 46560-3272 among other, less recognizable timekeepers, to ensure they are on track in carrying out their dastardly deed.
 

Smashing and stopping the victim’s watch to give a false impression of when the murder took place is a classic trick employed by Columbo killers, though the detective is usually savvy to it. Especially when the watch in question doesn’t match the rest of the victim’s attire, as is the case in Candidate for Crime (1973).

Wannabe senator Nelson Hayward (Jackie Cooper) decides to bump off his burly campaign manager Harry Stone (Ken Swofford) while making it look like a case of mistaken identity.
 

To trick police into believing the crime happened later than it did, he swaps Harry’s robust Seiko 6139 Speed Timer (yes, the same one Columbo wore in early episodes – it must have been doing the rounds in the props department) and straps a Lucerne dress watch on his corpse, smashing the watch to freeze the time to 9:20 p.m.

Columbo is puzzled that thickset Harry would wear a hard-wearing suit and sturdy shoes, but pair them with the flimsy Lucerne ticker.
 

Later, the lieutenant reveals to Hayward’s wife that he visited a jeweler to ask which type of watch would have the equivalent quality to Harry’s durable clothes. “The guy had an answer, I got it right here,” says Columbo before producing a Seiko 6139 Speed Timer from his pocket and clanging it against a parasol pole. “You can’t break it. It’s still ticking!” Columbo exclaims.

It seems Seiko’s reputation for reliability and sturdiness even holds sway in Columbo-land!

In Old Fashioned Murder (1976), Columbo discovers a mysterious note found on slaughtered stooge Milton Shaeffer (Peter S. Feibleman) that says: “Turn twice right after midnight.”

On visiting the boutique where Schaeffer had earlier bought his fancy triple calendar chronograph, the policeman learns the note is actually instructions for correcting the date on his freshly-acquired watch.
 

Assuming the deceased Schaeffer had been diligent about keeping his calendar display current, then he must have still been alive after midnight – later than first thought – on the evening he was murdered because when his corpse was discovered, his watch showed May 1st, the correct date. This horological find leads Columbo to realize all is not what it seems.

The watch in question – featuring pump pushers and a white dial with solitary 12 o'clock Arabic numeral marker – appears to be powered by a Valjoux 72C movement. Looks-wise, it resembles a Heuer Carrera 12 Dato Ref. 2547, Rolex Ref. 6236 “Jean-Claude Killy,” or Gallet MultiChron Calendar.
 

Saying that, those had pin-operated pushers, one at 8 o’clock to advance the date and one at 10 o’clock to move the day and month forward, but some early Valjoux 72Cs did require their owner to move the hands forward to set the day.

Visiting the watch boutique doesn’t just help Columbo make inroads into his investigation – the freshly coiffured detective (he had previously paid a visit to Schaeffer’s hairdresser) learns how to set his own date watch properly too!

Columbo is a master of spotting details that seem out of place: an invitation card on a desk, the radio station selected on a car stereo, or the way a pair of shoe laces are tied. But sometimes it’s the absence of something which should be there that gives the inimitable cop the damning evidence he needs.

That’s the case in The Most Crucial Game (1972) when Robert Culp’s callous football team general manager Paul Hanlon claims he was in his stadium’s private box at 2: 30 p.m., the time when franchise owner Eric Wagner (Dean Stockwell) was bludgeoned in his mansion swimming pool.
 

The recording of Hanlon’s bugged phone call to Wagner – complete with crowd cheers and game commentary in the background – at that very moment seemingly provides him with an alibi.

Of course, Hanlon was nowhere near the stadium, having used a phone box next to Wagner’s residence and a transistor radio playing match commentary to craft the call, all while disguised rather comically as an ice-cream man.
 

In one of the series best “gotcha” moments, Columbo calls out Hanlon, demonstrating that if he really was in his private box, you would have heard on the call the half-hourly chime of the anniversary clock sitting pretty in his private box.

Still, a crestfallen Hanlon can take consolation from the fact he goes down a classy criminal: He’s wearing a yellow-gold Rolex GMT-Master 1675/8 Root Beer on a jubilee bracelet – likely Culp’s personal timekeeper since he sports the same gem in the two other Columbo episodes in which he plays a baddie.