Patek does not make these pieces to make a profit, but to position themselves at the top of the pile when it comes to engineering as their customers want "the best", and are willing to pay a huge markup for it over "the next best".
It sounds crass to call such a beautiful thing "marketing", but it is - these show-off pieces are what sells the rest of the line (cheap at $20k starting price).
It makes me laugh it sounds so silly.
I want to buy that Apple computer?
Do you own an Apple computer?
No.
Sorry I can only sell you an Apple product if you already own one.
While Patek is probably among the worst offenders in that regard, a very reasonable consideration is that the stratospherically high-end watches are supply-constrained (partly due to there being so few people in the world capable of making them–I'm not taking about your $5K Rolex or even your $25K Patek, but the most complicated and finely-finished ones that can take a watchmaker months to years to produce just one example), and it's reasonable to sell them to known individuals who aren't just buying to immediately flip them at auction.
It also makes sense to reward those most loyal to the brand rather than allow something to be bought by the nouveau riche who will quickly move on to the next flavor of the month. That's how you alienate lifelong customers.
Or so I've been told, anyway. For all I know it's an urban legend.
"While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing_of_Jesus
...And we're now talking about Jesus on site where he is not normally discussed. As a method of spreading the gospel, you could certainly think of less effective methods.
Such approaches are of course not only modern, but it's good to recognize the other facets through which Christian believers have viewed Christ, such as the idea of "Christ as King" or "Christ as Warrior." The long history of, say, the Vatican's art and riches need not be snarkily dismissed as mere hypocrisy but also another dimension through which people saw their connection with and reverence for the divine.
Of particular interest to this article is the idea of "God as mathematician" or "God as watchmaker," which was something held by intellectuals around the time of Newton. The focus on craftsmanship in a timekeeper has a certain applicability.
A Casio F91-W. Durable, water resistant, stopwatch, alarm, calendar, timer ++. Cost: $6.68. Best selling watch on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Casio-F91W-1-Classic-Resin-Digital/dp...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W#Claimed_use_in_ter...
Appropriate, I think, for someone killed by an empire on fabricated claims of leading an insurrection.
http://www.biblestudytools.com/mark/passage/?q=mark+1:9-11
...and...
https://www.google.com/search?q=jesus+helping+peter&tbm=isch...
...so maybe just water / splash resistance, and not a dive watch / water proof.
[1] The Jesus number is a dimensionless number in fluid mechanics; it is the inverse of the more commonly used Eötvös number, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eötvös_number
addendum: Rolex sells around 1 million watches per year (they don't release numbers). Maybe 100-200,000 are Submariner diver watches which are, of course, water resistant and have a one-way bezel designed to track how much time until you need to surface. Most of those will not used by professional or even amateur divers. Most will never see a drop of water.
I'm trying to decide between a Junghans Max Bill and a Nomos Orion right now. I like the Max Bill because it's quartz, but it has a date window which I don't want. The Orion has no date window, but it's mechanical.
My current watch is a Seiko 5 and it's both mechanical and has a date window. I'm tired of always needing to set it.
Quartz: https://www.amazon.com/MVMT-Watches-Silver-Black-Leather/dp/...
I want quartz accuracy and durability (mechanical watches aren't very accurate, they are relatively fragile, and require periodic maintenance). I don't want a date complication because they are often ugly and unless it's a perpetual calendar, needs to be reset occasionally.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Kirill_of_Moscow#The...
Presumably, a person that is interested in having their watch tell them what day Easter falls on would be a follower of and believer in Jesus. From what I know about Jesus, he probably wouldn't be impressed by somebody spending millions of dollars on this.
What watch would Jesus wear?
Or maybe I'm looking at it wrong. Maybe it's just a great piece of art in the form of a clock.