Season three of The White Lotus leans into loud luxury, so it comes as no surprise that watches were a central focus for the art department. In a recent interview with GQ, the show’s prop master, Michael Cory, shared specifics about the timepieces making their small-screen appearance.
The choices for the North Carolinian Ratliff family are particularly pertinent. To fulfill the wish of their daughter, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), to visit a Buddhist monastery, parents Victoria and Timothy Ratliff (Parker Posey and Jason Isaacs) have packed up their entire brood off to Thailand. Although Victoria and Timothy’s relationship frays over the course of the season, they present a united front initially, a unanimity reflected in their matching Rolex Day-Date watches. The yellow-gold Day-Dates are not exactly subtle, but they’re not as in-your-face flashy as the Hublot Big Bang their eldest son, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), sports (he also wears a Rolex Milgauss, which is fairly low-key in comparison).
The youngest in the family, Lochlan (Sam Nivola), is caught between the unapologetic frat-bro energy of his older brother and his sister’s implicit rejection of the family’s values. He wears a more approachable — but still hard to procure — Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch. Perhaps predictably, given her yearning for a simpler way of living, Piper goes watchless.
In real life, Walton Goggins, who portrays Rick, has recently appeared wearing a Rolex Day-Date, like Timothy and Victoria. In the series, however, Rick straps on the much humbler Q Timex GMT. Meanwhile, New York lawyer Laurie (Carrie Coon) follows an arc in her watch wearing: In the early episodes, a Cartier Bagnoire encircles her wrist, but as the season progresses, it’s less and less in evidence. Between all the yoga and clubbing, she stops worrying about accessorizing — or time.
