<=Recap
The weight is just one side to the fact that a luxury watch stands out from the crowd. It is a statement – a symbol of the owner’s type. It’s subconscious that reflects through your choice of watches (or, watch).
Note: My own idea is not so extreme.
However, that should make us think why names like Breitling, TAG Heuer and to an extent, IWC, didn’t generate an interest.
It’s not the first time I met someone engrossed in A Lange and Sohne, Breguet, Franck Muller, Alain Silberstein, Audemars, Piguet, Blancpain, Patek Phillipe and Vacheron Constantin but none so far made to this point, where Rolex, Omega, Breitling, Ebel and Cartier are just children’s things and old-age toys.
A luxury is luxury and there’s a price point below which it can’t slip (or, dip). If it does, it is no more luxury. Luxury watches cannot come in moderate pricing and the expensive detailing is one of the reasons. This is not to say those wrongly categorized luxury are bad or won’t last or frail, they are extremely good in fit, finish and performance but that’s all about it. The luxurious touch is the inner duende in the high-end luxury sector; it builds over decades and centuries. These moderately-priced luxury watches are almost always mass/machine-produced (some LE and SE aside), which keeps the costs low. It’s not luxury unless someone from the tradition (the longer, the better) wrings his best to lay down the gears and trains and impart them motion.
As products; however, the USD 500 to USD 4000 range is a reliable one. Baume & Mercier, Raymond Weil and Tag Heuer etc. are some of the names. The beginning tier, in its true sense, is the next one.
Despite being produced in large quantities like the above, these have an extremely limited market. These go well over $2000. Fortis, Oris, Epos and Movado are popular names in the beginning tier.
However, this is the tech-man’s view on what true luxury watches should be for someone between 30 and 40 and till 45. Somehow, it starts with precious gems. Chivalry, I guess.
- The JLC Joaillerie 101 Manchette in 18-carat white gold and with 576 diamonds. There are also gold and silver cabochons.
- 2. Hublot’s LAFERRARI MP-05. What this new-age luxury is doing amidst more classical preferences?
- Corum’s answer to the above is 850 diamonds. The Classical Billionaire’s tourbillion is a tough machine to make and hence, only 10 made till date.
- Vacheron Constatatin Tour de I’lle is a limited-edition minute repeater watch in 18-carat yellow and pink gold. It’s a complication that shows sunset time and a second-time zone. The finest tourbillion around.
- Parmigiani Fleurier’s skeleton chronograph (Tecnica). It’s all about platinum and gemstones.
There were more names like Blancpain’s Grande Complication, Girard-Perregaux Opera One, the Breguet Double Tourbillon in that list, but Romain Jerome’s Titanic and Zadora?!? That’s uppity!