On Industry, It All Comes Back to the Watch

"It's all about the fall of man, basically. That's the Pierpoint symbol with The Garden of Earthly Delights behind it. It was this idea of putting as much stuff into the moving image as you can. On Industry, watches, jewelry, and clothes signal class maintenance or mobility. It's a collaborative process driven by specific pieces Down and Kay write into the script or pieces Smith suggests."

"She is fascinated by mourning jewelry, in which a dead person's hair is incorporated into a piece worn as a memorial, and she sees many of the accessories used in the show as the modern-day equivalent of that centuries-old trend. We don't need hair jewelry because we've got photos. But watches fill that gap now. They have a kind of sentimental value that makes a watch intangibly valuable atop of its inherent monetary value."

"Smith works with jewelers and secondhand dealers to purchase and loan pieces, pulls from her own vast collection, and has partnerships with luxury brands like Omega, Rado, Cartier, Hublot, Longines, and Apple. Overall, Smith says a series-high count of 40 or 50 different watches were used on the principal actors in Industry's fourth season."

Costume designer Laura Smith approaches her work on Industry season four through the lens of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, emphasizing the layering of visual details to convey narrative meaning. On the show, accessories like watches, jewelry, and clothes function as markers of social status and character development. Smith collaborates with writers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay to select specific pieces that enhance storytelling. She draws parallels between modern watches and historical mourning jewelry, noting that watches now carry sentimental value beyond monetary worth. Smith sources pieces through jewelers, secondhand dealers, her personal collection, and partnerships with luxury brands including Omega, Rado, Cartier, and Apple. Season four featured approximately 40 to 50 different watches worn by principal actors, carefully integrated so their significance emerges subtly rather than dominating the visual composition.

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