Benedict Cumberbatch's 'breath'-taking Swiss luxury watch ad explores meditation, free-diving
"Breath and time... we have our own internal rhythms... we have many different clocks," resonates Benedict Cumberbatch's voice from what seems to be an extended ASMR video. But it's not. It's the new advertisement for luxury Swiss watch brand Jaeger-LeCoultre's Mariner Memovox watch that comes with diver-friendly technology. To top it off, the beauty of the location where Cumberbatch shot this ad is inexplicable.
How Sherlock responds mid-ocean? By calming oneself
The ad that serenades the viewer from Cumberbatch's meditative calm to the rumbling ocean waves focuses on diving, its pleasure, and the caution system that the watch is suitably equipped to address. Although the ad alone would calm anyone, shooting for it was an opposite experience for Cumberbatch. In an interview, he discussed how he had to listen to video-instructions while swimming in the ocean!
"There were echoes of thoughts, which is quite tricky"
"They were remotely directing by video, so there were echoes of thoughts coming through, which is quite tricky to take in when you're in the water and you're being knocked about by the waves near a boat (sic)," explained Cumberbatch to Esquire. The 44-year-old added he consciously canceled the chaos to focus on his job of delivering as good a performance underwater as possible.
Meditation habit, miscommunication helped Cumberbatch learn free-diving
That amazing feat has its roots back to his childhood practice of meditation. Also, a miscommunication between the actor and the brand officials pushed him to learn free-diving. "The miscommunication on this shoot was that I'd said I love diving, which I presumed would be interpreted as scuba diving, but it was actually free-diving," said the actor. However, luck favored and Cumberbatch found help.
He is also busy with pre-production 'Doctor Strange 2'
Cumberbatch met someone in Italy who happened to be a free-diver, just what the actor needed to get him through this project. That person taught him the basic rules of breath control underwater in a pool and we are already approving the result! On the sorcery front, the actor is busy with the pre-production of the Marvel movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
