The following article contains major spoilers for Euphoria season three, episode three.
Euphoria has always courted chaos, and the third season is the show’s darkest, most chaotic yet. In the first few episodes alone, drug smuggling and chicken decapitation are just a few of the dramas viewers have to endure. And that third, most recent episode, in which Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Nate (Jacob Elordi) get married, is particularly wild. Nate builds up debts via (mis)managing the construction business once run by his dad, and so Naz, a Russian loan shark, crashes the wedding, then later visits the (not-so) happy couple at home, where he and his henchman beat Nate up and cut off one of his toes. Ouch.
It seems to be the start of a precipitous fall for Nate, who had presented a showy confidence to seduce potential investors. “He’s consciously trying to impress people,” says the show’s costume designer Natasha Newman-Thomas, who previously worked with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson on The Idol. That means Cartier and Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses, and a wardrobe of Bottega as “performative workwear.”
And for watches, it means easily understandable flexes that show even non-watch-nerds that Nate is a baller, or at least fronting as one. “Instant signifiers of success,” says Newman-Thomas, who outfitted the characters with watches alongside the show’s prop master, Joshua Bramer. So far this series, Nate has worn a couple of them, including a Cartier Santos. Contrary to the dainty little Tanks that Elordi has been seen rocking on red carpets in real life, the Santos is a bulkier, all-metal design. The timepiece gestures at his character’s big-league aspirations while also reminding us of his years as a beefcake high-school American football player.
Even more eye-catching is the gold Rolex Day-Date, sourced by Bramer, which Nate wears during his wedding and a barbecue put on to schmooze potential investors in episode two. “I believe we used gold cufflinks and a gold band,” says Newman-Thomas, “so I wanted all of the metals to match.” While you could spend a lot more on a ticker than the circa $40,000 this would cost, a shiny yellow-gold Rolex is the most legible statement in watches.
“The yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date is a timeless icon,” says Tim Green, head of commercial at Subdial. “It is one of the few all-gold bracelet watches that somehow manages to feel tasteful rather than gaudy, despite being an unmistakable signal of success. Whether on the wrist of Tony Soprano or Nate Jacobs, it carries a particular kind of power: confident, recognisable, and just the right side of unapologetic. It is not a quiet watch, but then again, icons rarely are.”