The Wolf of Wall Street is filled with clocks and replica watches, except they’re not the usual suspects. The film begins with 22-year-old Belfort, whose career is in its infancy. On his first day of work, he meets his first boss and we meet our first watch.
Famed watch enthusiast Jonah Hill plays Donnie Azoff in the film – the white-toothed, exaggerated former children’s furniture salesman who quits working for Belfort after seeing his vintage Jaguar. Many people noticed that his watch was a gold Rolex Daytona. According to Griffin, these people would be wrong. As is the case in many Hollywood productions, Azoff’s watch is a replica. That’s a shame, of course, but also appropriate for a somewhat pretentious character.
The main horological attraction is undoubtedly Belfort’s two gold watches. He wears one for most of the second act and the other in the third. Like Azoff Daytona, one of Belfort’s watches has been misidentified: many watch fans say it’s a gold Rolex GMT Master with a silver strap. It’s not a bad guess until you remember that DiCaprio is a TAG Heuer ambassador.
The easiest way to spot the difference between the two Belfort watches is the bracelet. This watch has larger links and a polished center section, not the Jubilee. Griffon recalls that the TAG Heuer watches sat in a safe in his prop trailer for almost a year after filming until Paramount called and said they were needed for a photo shoot (the gold-plated TAG Heuer 1000 watches appear so clearly on the film’s theatrical poster that you can see the brand on the dial).
Just as Belfort starts to feel a little cute about his finances, we get a great glimpse of the TAG Heuer Professional 1000. As DiCaprio narrates his character’s stock manipulation scheme, we find Belfort on the golf course with his hometown crony – ahem – business partner (01:05:28). Brad (Jon Bernthal) hands him a canvas bag with money, which Belfort calmly opens and then tosses into the back of his golf cart. As he does so, his gold-plated TAG glistens in the tri-state sun.
At the end of the film, FBI agent Patrick Denham (played by Kyle Chandler) manages to turn Belfort into an informant, or, in another rodent’s parlance, a rat. When the FBI explains to Belfort that he needs to hand over his accomplice (02:35:04), you can see the replica TAG Heuer 2000 and its diamond bezel glittering on Leo’s wrist as Agent Denham puts a wire on him – presumably not for long.