Jeremy Strong wears a Patek Philippe Nautilus

Kendall Roy spends four seasons of Succession trying to take his father's company and failing in a new way each time. Jeremy Strong plays him as a man who dresses the part of the heir apparent long before he has earned it, and for a stretch of the show that costume includes a Patek Philippe Nautilus, the reference 5711 in steel with the blue embossed dial.

Gerald Genta designed the Nautilus in 1976, a luxury sports watch in steel with an integrated bracelet and a porthole-shaped case, priced like gold on the theory that steel worn with enough confidence is its own flex. The 5711 was the modern version, and during Succession's run it became the single most wanted watch in the world. Patek discontinued it in 2021, which only pushed secondary prices past a hundred thousand dollars for a watch that had listed at around a tenth of that.

For Kendall the Nautilus is exactly right. It is establishment money, the watch of a man who wants the old guard to take him seriously, worn in the years before his Season 4 Richard Mille announces that he has given up on their approval and started buying the loudest thing on the market instead. The watch on his wrist keeps pace with the chip on his shoulder.