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Watch Spotting Joshua Jackson Wearing An All-Gold Rolex Daytona In Hulu's 'Little Fires Everywhere'

All gold everything.

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There are little fires everywhere in Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere – that's to be expected, but there is also a lot of gold. The new Hulu miniseries, which premiered March 18 with the first three episodes, tracks a mystery surrounding a fire which burns down a family home. The show opens as the fire rages and quickly rewinds four months into the past.

Set in 1997, the show centers around characters played by Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington and explores everything from motherhood to race in a tight eight-episode season. Reese Witherspoon plays Elena Richardson, and Joshua Jackson plays Bill Richardson, her husband. Jackson's character is a lawyer and apparent chrysophilist – the scientific term for a lover of gold. In the show, he is shown wearing a gold ring on both his ring and pinky finger. But, he saves the weightiest piece of gold for his wrist in the form of a Rolex Daytona.

The watch he is spotted wearing is a yellow-gold Rolex Daytona on a yellow-gold bracelet. It is impossible to see for certain whether or not the watch is period-accurate (more on that in a moment). A Rolex Daytona circa 1997 would, of course, be sporting the famed Zenith El Primero chronograph movement.

An icon in its own right, the Rolex Daytona needs no introduction here. Considered something of a dud when it was originally produced, the Daytona eventually found its footing and became truly as symbolic as the Rolex crown itself. The 1990s were notorious for opulence. Gold was certainly in vogue, and a gold Daytona would have been the choice-est of choices. Jackson's character being a particularly well-to-do lawyer, this was a very appropriate pick. 

A serial year 1993-1994 Rolex Daytona close to that could have been worn in 1997. Photo: courtesy Bob's Watches

But is the watch on the show period-correct? Truly impossible to say from these pictures. It is difficult to get a good view of the dial or clasp, which both would be good starting points to make a definitive determination. You can see in the image above, displaying a similar watch of the period, that the constant seconds register is at nine o'clock which is an indicator that the watch contains the El Primero-based caliber 4030 movement inside. When Rolex changed to their in-house caliber 4130, in 2000, the constant seconds moved from the 9:00 to the 6:00 position. Either way, the style of watch, and of course the luscious gold, is absolutely period-correct as far as I'm concerned. 

You can catch Joshua Jackson, his two gold rings, and his Rolex Daytona on Little Fires Everywhere streaming on Hulu. New episodes air every Wednesday. 

Update: After being alerted by a Community member that the Daytona in the show might be a fake, we checked with well-known authority Eric Ku. Mr. Ku feels that the watch may indeed be a fake, although he says the images are too low resolution to say with absolute certainty (he notes that the rehaut looks thicker than it should be if the watch is authentic) and that if the watch is being worn just for the show, it’s more probably a fake – like the notorious Daytona in Kill Bill Vol. 2.

All show photos: courtesy Erin Simkin/Hulu; Photo of the Rolex Daytona: courtesy Bob's Watches