The Penthouse: War in Life (2020)

The Penthouse: War in Life

On the 100th floor of the ultra-luxury Hera Palace condominium, residents wage a status war that turns openly murderous after the mysterious death of Min Seol-ah, the teenage daughter of Shim Soo-ryeon (Lee Ji-ah), at a Hera Palace party. Real-estate mogul Joo Dan-tae (Um Ki-joon), chairman of J King Holding and Soo-ryeon's husband, sits atop the building's social hierarchy; social climber Oh Yoon-hee (Eugene), an uncertified real-estate consultant, only moves in after fighting to enroll her daughter Bae Ro-na (Kim Hyun-soo) at the exclusive Cheongah Arts School, while Logan Lee (Park Eun-seok) infiltrates the school as a gym teacher to avenge his adopted sister. Hera Palace's divorce lawyer Lee Kyu-jin (Bong Tae-gyu) runs errands for Joo Dan-tae and helps cover up Min Seol-ah's death. SBS's melodrama ran three seasons from October 2020 to September 2021. (IMDb; Wikipedia)

Watches

Hublot Classic Fusion

Worn by Um Ki-joon as Joo Dan-tae. TANGIN 瑞士天珺表, a Swiss watch brand's own Zhihu account publishing under its recurring "明星的手表大扒皮" ("Celebrities' Watches, Thoroughly Dissected") format, surveyed Joo Dan-tae's watch collection across the series and states plainly that Season 1's director gave this Hublot Classic Fusion its own close-up shot, framing it as a casual-but-businesslike piece he pairs with checked suits. The source names only the line, with no case size, material, or reference given, and no independent second outlet has been found corroborating the sighting. (TANGIN) The jewellery columnist Min Eun-mi named the same line in the JoongAng Ilbo of 14 February 2021, after the first season: she reports black-dialled Classic Fusion watches in titanium on Joo Dan-tae, in two models with different dials, without references. (JoongAng Ilbo)

© SBS

Hublot Big Bang Unico King Gold

Worn by Um Ki-joon as Joo Dan-tae. The first of the two Season 2 Hublots that Xbiao (腕表之家) reports on Joo Dan-tae's wrist in its 4 April 2021 survey of the series' watches, which TANGIN 瑞士天珺表 reposts on Zhihu: at breakfast, in a blue sweater and sipping from a gilt-rimmed teacup, he wears a round rose-gold chronograph with an openworked dial on a black rubber strap. Xbiao sets the frame beside a King Gold Big Bang Unico product photograph and lists 411.OX.1180.RX, the 45 mm execution in polished and satin 18k King Gold, among the article's products, but its prose names only Hublot, and the frame shows the round King Gold case, skeleton dial, and rubber strap without settling bezel material or size, so only the King Gold Unico is asserted, with Xbiao's listed reference the leading candidate. It is a different watch from the tonneau-cased Spirit of Big Bang in the business-meeting frame, and no independent outlet has been found corroborating the sighting. (Xbiao; TANGIN)

© SBS

Hublot Spirit of Big Bang

Worn by Um Ki-joon as Joo Dan-tae. Xbiao (腕表之家), whose 4 April 2021 survey of the series' watches is the original that TANGIN 瑞士天珺表, a Swiss watch brand's Zhihu account, reposts, reports two Season 2 Hublots on Joo Dan-tae's wrist: one at breakfast, and another that it takes to be worn while talking business. Its caption "宇舶BIG BANG灵魂系列" ("Hublot Big Bang soul/spirit series") is applied only to the second, a frame of Joo Dan-tae seated in a dark suit and tie, hands clasped in front of a drink, with a tonneau-cased, openworked black watch on a black strap; Xbiao sets that frame beside a black-ceramic Spirit of Big Bang product photograph and lists 641.CI.0173.RX, the 42 mm black-ceramic execution, among the article's products. The breakfast watch is a different piece, a round King Gold Big Bang Unico. "灵魂系列" is Hublot's own Chinese-market name for the tonneau-cased Spirit of Big Bang line, confirmed directly against Hublot's Hong Kong site, which titles its Spirit of Big Bang page "宇舶表 Big Bang灵魂系列." The frame shows the barrel-shaped case and skeleton dial but settles neither case material nor size, and Xbiao's prose names only the line, so only the line is asserted; no independent outlet has been found corroborating the sighting. (Xbiao; TANGIN; Hublot)

© SBS

Blancpain Villeret

Worn by Um Ki-joon as Joo Dan-tae. In a memorable Season 2 scene, Joo Dan-tae fires a gun at Na Ae-gyo, Shim Soo-ryeon's disguised identity after faking her death, and his hand shakes badly enough to knock over a lamp; TANGIN identifies the watch on his wrist in that scene as a Blancpain "全历月相" (complete calendar with moonphase), calling it his one properly dress-watch piece next to an otherwise sporty collection. That complication is the signature of Blancpain's Villeret line, but the source names no reference, so only the family is asserted. (TANGIN) Min Eun-mi's JoongAng Ilbo column of 14 February 2021 places a Blancpain Villeret on him earlier, in the first-season shooting-range scene in which he and Gu Ho-dong aim guns at each other; she too names only the collection. (JoongAng Ilbo)

© SBS

Omega Constellation

Worn by Um Ki-joon as Joo Dan-tae. The same TANGIN survey credits Joo Dan-tae with an Omega Constellation as well, but only in passing ("also appears on his wrist"), with no scene, no material, and no reference named. That passing mention supports only a tentative Constellation-family identification. (TANGIN)

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Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous

Worn by Lee Ji-ah as Shim Soo-ryeon. TANGIN identifies a Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous on Shim Soo-ryeon's wrist, without a reference number. The account describes it as a match for her wardrobe as a wealthy wife; that is the source's interpretation, not a documented costume decision. (TANGIN)

© SBS

Zenith Chronomaster Open 51.2080.4061/69.C494

Worn by Park Eun-seok as Logan Lee. Introduced as a physical-education teacher who infiltrates Cheongah Arts School to avenge his adopted sister, wealthy heir Logan Lee wears the two-tone Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Open: a 42 mm steel case under an 18-karat rose-gold bezel, a silvered dial cut open at 10 o'clock to expose the El Primero escapement beside a midnight-blue 30-minute counter at 3 and a charcoal 12-hour counter at 6, on a brown alligator strap. An SBS close-up in the sixteenth episode of the first season shows each of those cues beneath his cream suit sleeve. A Korean watch-retail post that discloses Zenith's sponsorship names the reference, 51.2080.4061/69.C494, from frames of the same watch in the sixteenth and eighteenth episodes, and TANGIN 瑞士天珺表, which reads the Zenith as a deliberately low-key choice next to Hera Palace's other watches, pairs its own frames with the same two-tone product photograph and a ¥83,900 list price, the figure Xbiao records for exactly this reference. (Naver blog; TANGIN; Xbiao)

© SBS

Michel Herbelin (unidentified model)

Worn by Eugene as Oh Yoon-hee. As the relatively down-to-earth outsider among Hera Palace's residents, uncertified real-estate consultant Oh Yoon-hee wears a small rectangular steel-cased watch on a black leather strap, and the sources disagree about whose it is. TANGIN 瑞士天珺表 identifies it as a Michel Herbelin, pricing the brand at roughly ¥3,000 to ¥15,000 as a more attainable choice than her wealthier neighbors' watches, and the product photograph it pairs with its frame is the Roman-numeral Art Déco, the rectangular line Herbelin builds with fluted case ends and a Clous de Paris dial; a Korean drama-fashion blog independently names the Art Déco reference 17478/08 for the watch she wears when Logan Lee confronts her at dinner in the nineteenth episode of the first season. Against both, Carven's Korean watch distributor MAISON246 stated on 22 November 2020, over a still from the series, that Eugene wore its Carven CV636-WH/BK in the drama, a rectangular Roman-numeral watch with a silver case and black leather band that is near-identical to the Art Déco at broadcast resolution. No available frame resolves the fluted case ends or dial signature that would separate the two watches, and the accounts may describe different scenes, so the evidence establishes the design but not the maker. (TANGIN; Naver blog; MAISON246 on Facebook; Herbelin; MAISON246)

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Milton Stelle (unidentified model)

Worn by Eugene as Oh Yoon-hee. A second, square-cased watch on Oh Yoon-hee, which TANGIN identifies as a Milton Stelle, a South Korean domestic brand, set with diamonds and reading more feminine than her plainer Michel Herbelin. No model or reference is named. (TANGIN)

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Milton Stelle MS-079

Worn by Eugene as Oh Yoon-hee. A picnic flashback in the tenth episode of the first season puts a different Milton Stelle on Oh Yoon-hee's wrist from the diamond-set square watch of her Hera Palace years: a small oval rose-gold-toned case on a slim ivory strap, worn with a floral-print cream blouse. A Korean drama-fashion blog covering the episode's wardrobe identifies it as the brand's MS-079 and reproduces the product image, an oval quartz watch with rose-gold Roman numerals on a white dial, noting that by December 2020 it survived only on the brand's Naver storefront; the frame shows the case shape, colour and strap but not the dial, and the blog names no colourway suffix. (Naver blog)

© SBS

Olivia Burton (unidentified model)

Worn by Kim Hyun-soo as Bae Ro-na. In the second season, Oh Yoon-hee's daughter Bae Ro-na wears a square-cased watch that TANGIN, reporting that many viewers had asked online which brand it was, tentatively identifies as the British brand Olivia Burton ("应该是英国品牌Olivia Burton," or "should be the British brand Olivia Burton"), a hedge the source itself does not resolve further. No model or reference is named. (TANGIN)

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Unidentified pocket watch

Worn by Bong Tae-gyu as Lee Kyu-jin. At a Hera Palace costume party in the first season (the episode broadcast 3 November 2020), Lee Kyu-jin, the divorce lawyer who does Joo Dan-tae's errands, holds up a gold pocket watch with a stone-set hunter cover and brags that he won it at auction for 1.5 billion won; SBS's clip of the scene captions it as the expensive watch he showed off that night. Kukmin Ilbo's round-up of the drama's villains calls it an expensive skeleton watch that he loses while moving Min Seol-ah's body to Bosong village, where Shim Soo-ryeon finds it and uses it to threaten him. TANGIN's column on the drama's watches gives only the label the script attaches to it, "NXT", with pavé diamonds, and the auction price. No account names a maker, and SBS's frame shows only the closed cover, so the watch is recorded as an unidentified pocket watch. (SBS; Kukmin Ilbo; TANGIN)

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