(I came to this thread as M4tt mentioned it in another thread)
The trouble with using OHMSS for reference material RE Bond is that Fleming was influenced at this point by the Film
Fleming takes the trouble to strengthen and establish links between novel Bond and film Bond in OHMSS
(Scottish ancestry, Ursula Andress dining at Blofeld's lair)
There are also many false quotes from the novels RE Rolex, Rolex is very sparsely mentioned in the books
Here's what I could find, titles are abbreviated, apologies if I missed any (I used find function in Calibre)
CR
No mention
LALD
He looked at the Rolex watch on his wrist. It was three minutes pasteleven o’clock
MR
No Mention
DAF
No mention
FRWL
No mention
DN
No mention
GF
No mention
FYEO
No Mention
TB
No mention of Bond's rolex, only the Petacchi character
TSWLM
No mention
OHMSS
and his wrist-watch, a heavy Rolex Oyster Perpetual on an expanding metal bracelet
He sat down and bent to his paper-work and tried not to listen to the hastening tick of the Rolex on his wrist,
through the fingers of the left hand and the Rolex transferred to his right, the bracelet clasped in the palm of his hand and round the fingers so that the face of the watch lay across his middle knuckles
Bond's right flashed out and the face of the Rolex disintegrated against the man's jaw
Bond lifted his left wrist. Remembered that he no longer had a watch. That he would certainly be allowed on expenses. He would get another one as soon as the shops opened after Boxing Day. Another Rolex? Probably. They were on the heavy side, but they worked. And at least you could see the time in the dark with those big phosphorus numerals.
He glanced at the new Rolex on his wrist - the shops were still shut and he had had to blarney it out of Q Branch **
YOLT
No mention
TMWTGG
No mention
O&TLD
No mention (I didn't check 007 in NY)
**Implies Bond had access to Rolex via Q branch.
But with the exception of the single line in LALD, Fleming does not mention Bond and Rolex until after Dr. No (movie) is released......
Lets not forget....
Bond is a fictional character
Fleming also wrote that you could die being covered in paint, that bond had a fight with a giant squid & that homosexual men can't whistle, so lets not get too carried away about the importance of this [says the man who just trawled through his entire e-library of Bond books]