I'm thinking about what Romain Roy's new watch might mean.

Roman is a character in HBO's "inheritance", a soap opera about the miserable lives of billionaire families who own global media and entertainment groups like the Murdoch family or the Redstone family.

The fictional WayStar/Royco focuses much like Disney and Fox; it has a broadcast news and entertainment department as well as a theme park and cruise company.

Roman (real name Romulus), played by Kieran Culkin, is the youngest son of 80-year-old family patriarch and company founder Logan Roy (Brian Cox). Roman is a ruthless, ridiculous blasphemous spirit to make up for his extreme insecurity and his reasonable lack of talent in anything other than acrimonious depreciation.

At first glance, he seems to be the least likely person in the Roy family to succeed his father as the leader of the company, but—because this is a TV series—he will be the best candidate to win this special game.

Now, his celebrity seems to be on the rise, thanks to his alliance with acting CEO Gerry Kelman (J. Smith Cameron), who seems to be obsessed with the youngest son, who was once caught by his Brothers and sisters call them the weakest dog in their group—becoming an energetic person may be able to take on some of the responsibilities of an adult.

The Gerri-Roman relationship is a fascinating sub-plot in "Inheritance", just like "King Lear" is transformed into a modern black comedy mode. This relationship has a sexual element, and from Roman's point of view, it is a true romance.

But Gerri is dozens of years older and smarter than Roman. Although she obviously has feelings for him, she does not intend to compromise her position by having an extramarital affair with Logan’s baby boy (even if Logan is the kind of parent if it is good for the bottom line). , Who can happily allow his child to go to jail).

Maybe she saw a potential ally in Roman. With her expertise and his, uh, name, maybe they can rule the empire together.

Anyway, in last week's show, Roman wears a new watch.

I don't know what brand and model it is, but the gold watch on the leather strap replaces the 41mm Rolex Datejust on the Oyster bracelet.

Any reasonable person may dismiss this information. But "inheritance" is a show made up of watches, and what they may or may not mean. A highlight of the pilot episode is the $160,000 Patek Philippe that Logan's future son-in-law Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) gave Logan as a birthday gift. Tom obviously wanted to please Logan, and Logan hardly looked at his watch. ("It's very accurate," Tom told Logan when he handed it to Logan. "Every time you look at it, it tells you exactly how rich you are.")

After Roman humiliated their children in a softball game, Patek Philippe was given to a poor Latino family at the end of the episode to induce them to sign a non-disclosure agreement. At the end of the series, expensive watches are placed on the desks in their working-class homes.

Watches are almost meaningless to billionaire Roy. Just another thing, he can have everything he wants. This character is not a gorgeous dresser; he often wears a baseball cap and low-key (but expensive) cardigans and jackets. He wears a pilot watch with a diamond crown from the Swiss manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen. Although it looks like an ordinary white dial, it may cost at least $20,000.

It is worth thinking about what Patek Philippe means to the families who receive it. Does the NDA make it clear that they cannot say who gave them the watch? They can of course sell it, but only a small part of its value, and the offloading of this luxury product may arouse suspicion by law enforcement agencies and the IRS.

In an episode earlier this year, the rude relative "cousin" Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun) found himself in an awkward situation when he realized that the black sheep of the family, Mackendall Roy ( Jeremy Strong) When he "hooked" him with his watch, he found himself in an awkward position. It does not mean that Kendall is actually buying him a watch. Instead, Kendall asked Greg to contact a seller of Rolex Deepsea watches.

If you know how difficult it is to obtain stainless steel tool watches from Rolex today, then this makes sense. The waiting list for authorized dealers lasts for several years, and many buyers get the models they want in the so-called gray market at prices much higher than retail prices. (Even so, the $40,000 paid by Greg is still a premium; the suggested retail price of Rolex Deepsea is $12,600.)

By the way, Kendall wears the most expensive watches in the show-the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Vacheron Constantin chronographs he wears are priced between 100,000 and 700,000 US dollars. As we all know, Tom wears Cartier Santos (in the range of US$3,000 to US$7,000), Panerai Luminor Marina (about US$7,000), and the most interesting thing is that some watch bloggers insist that it is a fake Cartier Ballon Bleu. (Tom seems to have given up Ballon this season, which is a bit disappointing because some of us expect him to be eliminated for wearing fakes.)

What is striking is that Shiv, the most down-to-earth character of the play, the youngest of Roy's children and Tom's wife, wore a practical quartz movement Cartier Panther there. Nice watch, but hardly exotic. According to her dress, one of her is golden and the other is steel.

Obviously, one was very careful in choosing the character's watch, and gave people reason to doubt what Roman's new watch might mean. Although his old Rolex, according to his family's standards, is relatively cheap (in the secondary market, you can buy a platinum date recorder for about $15,000; Rolex does not seem to provide platinum watches at this time, but the suggested retail price is $7,650 Steel version and $9,650 platinum version).

However, under certain lights, it still gleams-a salesman's watch, a politician's watch. Everyone thinks it is an expensive watch. The gentleman's watch is "thin and gold", and the second hand is for those who have to worry about time, which is the opposite of the ancient currency shibboleth. (Reminds the queen mother of "Downton Abbey": "What is this'weekend'?")

My theory is that Gerri is reinventing Roman into a more serious, less annoying self. She is making him a man because this is what women do for us. Things that a watch can never do.

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