Quote:
Originally Posted by Benedict1957
I grew up in a fiscally conservative and pathologically frugal household and so my calibration for what constitutes an "appropriate" amount to spend on a watch is unreasonable by most peoples' standards.
I know this is rarely (if at all) true in reality but in my mind people who wear, say, a $10,000 watch should be making at least $1M per year. As a status symbol, wearing a piece of jewelry that costs $10,000 should signal an income of at least that much. It feels disingenuous to wear a watch of that magnitude making any less than that.
The number $1M is somewhat arbitrary but as an order of magnitude estimate that's generally how I perceive watches as status symbols. In reality, the incomes of people who wear $10,000 watches run the gamut from as low as mid-5 figures to as high as 10 figures, with the median probably being somewhere in the low 6 figure range.
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Just to give you an idea of prices, someone wearing a Rolex will likely have paid between $10k and $30k. A Patek Phillippe, Audemars Piguet or Vacheron Constantin wearer will most likely have spent well over $30k for that watch. As for other brands - If it's made in Switzerland, has a mechanical movement - which you can usually tell by looking at the second hand and seeing if it ticks once per second (quartz) or four-eight times a second (mechanical) and just tells the time it'll be $1,000 - $10,000 (or more depending on the brand) and if it's got a bunch of other dials you're easily talking a $15,000+ watch. What I'm saying is $10,000 is actually a cheap swiss watch.
But a Swiss watch is like a European car. You could've easily got a car that gets you from A to B, and probably even a car just as fast, just as big, just as comfortable as a BMW from Toyota, Ford etc. for $10,000 less than what you paid for your BMW.
When you spend $30,000 on a BMW, you expect you're going to get some of that money back if/when you sell it. It's more comfortable (maybe), it lasts longer (maybe), and it carries more prestige (maybe) than cheaper alternatives. You buy a BMW because to you, a car is more than just getting from A to B. And because it's something you love, you'll spend a lot more than 'normal people' and not see it as a 'waste of money'.
Same with Swiss watches. People generally don't spend $30,000 on a watch to impress others. You can do that buy spending $700 on Bose/Beats headphones, or on an apple watch. Sure, status is part of the motivator, but it's not the primary driving force.
So, I dream of earning $1M per annum. Before tax I earn about 1/10th of that, after tax a lot less. But I have considered buying a $30,000 watch. I don't see it as disingenuous (though, very few of us would ever look at our own behaviour and admit that it is) because 99% of the population wouldn't recognise it as being worth more than about $300.
I justify it by saying I spent more than that on my car, which costs a lot more to run, and will be worth far less in five years time.
Conversely, if you spend $30,000 on a Patek - and look after it - it'll probably be worth about $30,000 in ten years time.