The watches in Rivals were supplied by Omega and Longines directly. Almost everything else on screen is vintage, archive, or made for production — which means you can buy into the watch story and essentially nothing else. Costume designer Ray Holman has said both things on the record, in two separate interviews, and the gap between them is the most useful thing anyone can tell you about this show's wardrobe.
That gap is worth naming up front, because the internet is about to fill it with dupes. A period drama set in 1986 generates enormous "where can I get that" traffic and almost no honest answers, since the honest answer is usually a charity shop in 1987. Below: what Holman actually said, character by character, what is genuinely purchasable, and where we would spend money if we wanted the look rather than the object.
The watches, and why they are different from everything else
Holman told The Gentleman's Journal that Omega and Longines supplied the watches themselves. That single fact changes the confidence level of this entire section. Most screen-item identification is someone pausing a frame and matching a bezel. This is the costume designer naming the brands that sent him the pieces.
| Character | Watch |
|---|---|
| Lord Tony Baddingham | Omega — Holman describes it as "a flashy watch" |
| Rupert Campbell-Black | Longines, on a leather strap |
| Freddie Jones | a gold Timex digital |
| Lady Monica Baddingham | vintage Rolex, plus Edwardian pieces |
What Holman did not give is a model number. Not for the Omega, not for the Longines. We have looked, and neither brand has published a Rivals page, a press release, or a product tag. So if you see a page confidently naming a reference number for Rupert's Longines, treat it the way you would treat a stranger's confident directions in a foreign city.
What you can do is buy the right shape. And the shape is the interesting part.
Reading the watches as characterisation
This is a show about class, money and who is allowed to be new. The watches are doing that work explicitly.
Tony gets the flashy Omega. He is the television executive with a title he did not inherit comfortably, and the watch announces itself. Rupert gets a Longines on leather. Quieter, older-money coding — a dress watch on a strap rather than a statement on a bracelet. Freddie gets a gold Timex digital, which is the most precise joke in the set: he is the self-made technology millionaire, and his watch is a cheap plastic-era digital in gold. It signals money without signalling breeding, and it is period-correct to the exact year.
Monica gets a vintage Rolex and Edwardian jewellery — inherited things, worn without comment. That is the whole class system in four wrists.
If you are shopping, that is the useful lesson. You do not need the exact reference. You need to know which of the four people you are dressing as.
What we would actually buy: for Rupert's register, a plain leather-strapped dress watch from Longines' own current line does the job, and Longines has never stopped making that silhouette. For Freddie's, the 1980s digital revival is genuinely inexpensive and Timex still produces the family. For Tony's, an Omega on a bracelet is a real purchase at real money, and we would not make it because of a television programme.
The Dunhill archive, and what "archive" means for your shopping list
For the second series, Holman told Country & Town House that Dunhill invited him to their archives, and that the original 1980s pieces he found there informed both Tony Baddingham and Rupert Campbell-Black.
This is a lovely detail and a shopping dead end, and both are true simultaneously.
An archive visit means the house let a designer study garments it made forty years ago. It does not mean those garments went into production, and it does not mean Dunhill sells them. The brand trades today, its current tailoring is excellent, and none of it is the thing on screen.
The same applies to Mulberry, who Holman says "sent me loads of bags from the 1980s." Those are archive loans. Mulberry's current collection is a different set of bags. If you want a 1980s Mulberry, the resale market is where it lives, and condition on forty-year-old leather varies enormously — check the corners and the base, which are where a bag that has been carried shows it first.
What the women wear, and where it actually came from
This is the half of the wardrobe with the strongest pull and the weakest buy links, so we will be direct about it.
Lady Monica Baddingham wears vintage Liberty print shirts made for production. Both halves of that matter. The fabric is vintage Liberty; the shirts were constructed for the show. Liberty still sells its printed cottons by the metre and still publishes new seasonal prints, so this is the one look on the list that a competent dressmaker can reproduce honestly — right fabric house, right weight, wrong decade of print.
Lizzie wears vintage Laura Ashley dresses. Not reproductions, not a collaboration — actual 1980s Laura Ashley. This is the single most achievable look in the show, because 1980s Laura Ashley is abundant on the secondhand market and was made in enormous quantities. It is also the look with the most emotional weight in the series, which is not a coincidence: it dresses the character who is least performing.
Helen's stretch-knit pieces were built with Azzedine Alaïa as the reference point. Alaïa is a design reference here, not a supplier. Alaïa the house continues; the 1980s body-conscious knits that made its name are collector items.
Rupert Campbell-Black wears, in Holman's words, "a great Valentino Prince of Wales check suit." Valentino trades; that suit is not in the current collection.
The knitwear, and a correction worth making
Holman told The Gentleman's Journal that Corgi, the Welsh knitwear maker, manufactured custom-designed knitwear for the production.
We went to check whether any of it reached the shop. It has not. Corgi's own site — corgisocks.com, the correct domain, a Carmarthenshire firm with a Royal Warrant — carries no Rivals collection and no Rivals products. The knitwear was made for the show and stayed there.
We are flagging this because "Corgi made the knitwear for Rivals" is precisely the kind of true sentence that turns into a false shopping link three blogs later. Corgi is a genuinely good maker and worth buying from. Just not for a Rivals piece, because there isn't one.
Also on the confirmed list: Ray-Ban sunglasses sourced for production, and original 1980s Armani used as the reference for Tony's power suits — again a reference, not the garment.
So what is actually buyable
Sorted honestly, best to worst:
- A leather-strapped Longines or an Omega on a bracelet. Brand-confirmed at the category level by the costume designer, both houses trading, both silhouettes continuous. No model number, so buy the shape you like.
- A gold-tone digital Timex. Cheap, period-correct, and the funniest of the four.
- Liberty fabric, made up. The only route that gets you the actual material from the actual house.
- Vintage Laura Ashley. Abundant, affordable, and genuinely the thing itself rather than a version of it.
- 1980s Mulberry, resale. Real, findable, condition-dependent.
- Everything else. Archive, reference, or made for production. Not for sale in any form.
The one thing we would tell a friend: this wardrobe reads as expensive because it is specific, not because it is new. Every piece looks like it belongs to a particular person with a particular history. That is a charity-shop skill, not a budget, and it is the actual takeaway from a show whose costume designer spent his time in archives rather than showrooms.
FAQ
What watch does Rupert Campbell-Black wear in Rivals? A Longines on a leather strap. Costume designer Ray Holman has said Longines supplied the watches to production directly. No specific model or reference number has been published by Holman or by Longines.
What watch does Tony Baddingham wear? An Omega, which Holman describes as "a flashy watch." Omega supplied it. As with the Longines, no model number is on the record.
Is Freddie's gold digital watch real? Yes — Holman names it as a gold Timex digital. It is period-correct for the mid-1980s and is the cheapest identified item in the show.
Where can I buy the knitwear from Rivals? You cannot. Corgi, the Welsh knitwear firm, made custom pieces for the production, but there is no Rivals collection on Corgi's own site and none of it was released commercially.
Are the Laura Ashley dresses reproductions? No. Holman used genuine vintage 1980s Laura Ashley. That makes them the most attainable look in the series, since the secondhand market for that era is deep.
Did Dunhill make clothes for the show? Dunhill opened its archive to Holman and those 1980s pieces informed the tailoring for Tony Baddingham and Rupert Campbell-Black. That is a research loan, not a production run — Dunhill does not sell the garments seen on screen.
What about the Mulberry bags? Mulberry lent 1980s bags from its archive. They are not current stock. The resale market is the only route, and forty-year-old leather needs inspecting at the corners and base before you commit.
Is any of this confirmed by the brands themselves? Only indirectly. The confirmations come from Ray Holman in two published interviews, not from brand press releases. We have not found an Omega, Longines, Dunhill, Mulberry or Valentino page referencing the show, and we would rather say so than imply one exists.