1.7 million and it looks like a piece of junk. You'd think that rich people of that quality would at least get something of actual value, like a 100 million gallons of horse shit. Now that's a status symbol that says something about the wearer.
Beyond a certain threshold they're just making shit up to make ever more exclusive stuff for rich people to spend their surplus on, without adding any more value than exclusivity itself.
The funny thing is that the exclusive brands are crap at delivering actual value in their products compared with mass market manufacturers. A Lamborghini is a piece of junk compared to a top of the line VW and will look like dogshit after five years. Similarly, lots of the most expensive men's clothing you can buy in upmarket boutiques will be falling apart after two washes. Don't even get me started about haute couture fashion.
The point is that once you've pushed the envelope on quality and good design, all you can add is higher price to make a product exclusive. So the rich will actually give money for nothing - high price is an aim in itself, even at the expense of real virtues. Which is really weird.
Watches aren't really my bag, but some very wealthy people go nuts over them. I can sort of appreciate the intricacy that must be involved in making a mechanical watch that can add in a day of Feb 29th during leap years. But I couldn't see buying that even if I had Bill Gates's bankroll. I wouldn't buy it if it cost $100.
Most Patek's are not that much though. I think you can get a number of them in the $30-$50k range. I think that one is produced in very limited quantities.
But yeah, give me a $700 Movado any day. Looks better, is more durable, keeps time far more accurately.
Wow, I couldn't see how that is worth 1.7 million dollars. Even if it was made out of pure uranium, you had to buy the master watchmaker's equipment and pay him for 3 months straight.
I like the history of the expensive watch. It highlights neatly exactly what technology does to wealth. This company began when only the ultra rich could afford a precision timekeeper. Having one for personal use that could be worn on ones person seemed an impossible luxury. The rich lived a different kind of life in those times.
Now you can get a watch at WalMart for $10 that keeps better time than the most expensive mechanical watch. Technology lets us all live the same way. The rich are reduced to comical displays of gluing diamonds to the outdated mechanical monsters of the past.
Some of the "rich watches" are quite beautiful, both physically and mechanically. Most are not. In any case, they're just bling now.
50 gallons of horse shit for a dollar? Factoring in transportation, the labour required to package it up (not to mention the size of operation required to generate millions of gallons in the first place) - that's just unrealistic, even buying in bulk.
1.7 million and it looks like a piece of junk. You'd think that rich people of that quality would at least get something of actual value, like a 100 million gallons of horse shit. Now that's a status symbol that says something about the wearer.