Generally I do wear it every day. I bought it because, after many many years of finding all mechanical watches ugly and tacky, I found one specific model that I find to be absolutely gorgeous and I adore the way it looks; a $300 Apple Watch keeps better time and has more functionality. A $20 Casio has equivalent functionality and way, way better timekeeping. It's jewelry and I wear it daily just as I wear an EDT and deodorant and clean clothes. I actually subscribe to the jwz theory of "if you need you to know what time it is that often, your life has gone dangerously wrong", and I have a radar filed because there are no Apple Watch faces without a time display.

It also has the added benefit whilst traveling of signaling to customer service staff (I fly commercial and not always in first) that I am a revenue opportunity (ie don't ignore me), as I am quite utilitarian and my 'fits are almost always sub-$200 (not counting shoes and scarf). My daily driver tshirt is plain black and costs $25, for example, and I loathe brands and visible labels. It's not immediately obvious to retail staff that it's profitable to provide me with good service.

Expensive watches aren't about timekeeping. They are jewelry and status signifiers.

Also, my daily driver watch is under $10k; theft no more enters my mind about it than it does for carrying my laptop; a maxxed out Macbook Pro ($6k) is approximately the same value as my watch and I never think about whether or not I should bring my laptop somewhere.

I also collect sunglasses and luggage; I'm not much of a clothes horse but I do adore stylish accessories.

Edit: I have friends who are "expensive watch guys" and one such new money friend, despite growing up poor, now personally grosses low double digit millions of USD annually. He recently told a story to our group about being in a 10 person business meeting where his $40k Rolex was the cheapest watch anyone had on, as a way of communicating how impressed he was and the gravitas of how many corporate heavy hitters were involved in his deal. Perhaps this sheds some light on their purpose and utility. (My $7k stainless steel daily driver doesn't even rank among these sorts of guys.)

I don't know why this comment makes me wretch. Money people and their lines of thinking are so bizarre and foreign to my reality.

It's not so much "money people" as it is utility - someone who can provide you with a $1mm or $10mm business opportunity wears the same quality suit as someone who can provide you with a $100mm or $1B business opportunity. It's a practical method of signaling status within a group where everyone is wealthy.

Humans as well as many other mammals become anxious in groups where their position in the social status hierarchy is unclear. It's a tool for signaling information to strangers, same as a wedding ring.

I was in a meeting recently with two guys who both had Rolex’s on, and all it told me is that they probably take bribes.

I used to work on yachts. Expensive watches were a pretty good asshole signal.

Plenty of fabulously wealthy people out there wearing timex, Ironman, or Apple Watches.

If you’re judging someone’s business acumen based on their watch, you also seem to think that telling us how much your buddy grosses is supposed to tell us anything at all.

I think you might’ve intended to respond to my parent.

I've tried googling this JWZ theory but can't find anything. I suspect I would like to read whatever he embedded this in though. Could you give a citation or hint on where to find it?

2000: https://www.jwz.org/gruntle/cell.html

> I don't wear a wrist watch for a similar reason: if you wear a watch, it means that your life is structured such that you frequently need to know what time it is. And that means that your life has taken a wrong turn somewhere.

1. What is an EDT?

2. What does "I have a radar filed" mean?

Thanks for clarifications.

Eau de Toilette - perfume/cologne.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eau_de_toilette

Radar is Apple's internal bug tracker - "a radar" is an Apple(tm) bug report.

https://openradar.appspot.com/page/1

Odd thing to acronymise. (If you insist on doing so, it should probably be EdT or simply ET in any case).

I don't insist but the acronyms EDT and EDP are already the subcultural jargon. (I'm new to this scene myself.)

Wait, which subculture?

I have to use 2 Apple Watch as they does not have enough battery to keep going for long. I just switch it for charge whenever I have time. I suspect all these hybrid watch is a compromise of energy.

Everyone could be saved a lot of trouble in the above scenario if it were socially acceptable to simply wear a yellow sticky note stating your annual income on your forehead.

You could lie and write a bigger number. It's harder to lie about having six figures strapped to your wrist for anyone to see.

It needs to be a signal that can't easily be faked to be useful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotting

Fake high-end watches are fairly readily available, aren’t they?

A signal doesn't have to be perfect to be useful. Breast implants and hair implants are also a thing. The fakes are for fooling people who don't know the difference between a $20k and a $200k watch. The rise of fake handbags (the modern female equivalent) and their explicit popularity (as fakes) is interesting and instructing, too.

I've come to learn that most normal people just want to be oriented about where they stand in the status hierarchy. It's not that being low or high status is the goal (although for many it is), but knowing the relative status of those around you makes people less anxious as they then understand how to behave to minimize their own distress. It's the uncertainty that causes people anxiety.

I agree with your basic premise that clear displays of metrics would save a lot of time and trouble, but we have decided as a society that that is both dangerous and tacky, so we use more coded signals instead.

I really think you may be overestimating how much the average person cares about 'status'. Or wants to advertise it, quite frankly. I wear pretty much the same stuff as I did when I earned a tenth what I do now.

Not saying that no-one cares about it, but I don't really buy that it's "most normal people".

Though, it may be somewhat regional and/or generational; my impression is that my approximate generation (late X, early millennial) may be less concerned with it that either early Xes or late millennials.

[delayed]

I currently don't own a >=5k but I have previously, my currently daily is 3.5k (GBP).

> Do you wear it every day? > Does it impact my plans?

I do wear it almost daily but it does vary, if I'm doing anything manual (gardening, working on my bike, painting/decorating) then I'll either not wear it or take it off during those activities where I'm likely bound to bash my wrist against something.

I'll often swap it out for one of my other cheaper ones sometimes.

> Why?

I've liked watches for God knows how long and I was fortunate to work at a luxury watch shop where I got some great discounts.

I've always said my collection is my funeral fund for once I go!

> Do I consider myself "well off"?

Personally, no. I just make very bad financial decisions.

In Switzerland I don't think there is any such thought. I see crazy expensive time pieces on people's wrists and no one give as hoot other than watch enthusiasts.

I don't currently own a watch over 5k but if I where to purchase such a piece it would be for the craftsmanship and the beauty of the mechanics. However you would never find me wearing a Rolex which is a mass produced status symbol IMO.

Expensive is relative to where you live.

If you bought a Submariner in 2013, you could sell it today for more than you paid. From some perspectives, that Rolex is less expensive than a similar Timex or Casio.

I have a watch that would be considered expensive by most. It’s not really about telling the time - I simply appreciate the complexity and beauty of handcrafted mechanical watches.

People spend years learning how to build them. It takes a long time to assemble one. They’re precisely made with small parts made of precious metals which are themselves expensive.

With companies like A Lange & Sohne, each watchmaker can only make about 6 watches per year. At a pace like that you’re not really paying for the watch, you’re paying for their labor and expertise. You’re paying to preserve the craft. You can’t make 6 of something in a year and sell it for $100 if it’s how you make a living.

I can’t speak to the value of heavily marketed mechanically produced watches that sink millions into advertising like Omega and Rolex.

I collection (mechanical) watches I have 30-40, half are cheap as chips, usually old Soviet pieces, the other half are Swiss.

The most expensive watch I own is about €10k. Honestly I don't think of the value on the days I wear it - I just look at it and smile.

It used to be that I had about seven watches and I had one for each "activity". So I had a sauna-watch, a swimming watch, a photography watch. Later I got too many, so I switched into different styles - a pilot watch, a diver watch, a jump-hand watch, etc, etc.

I usually change watch every day, but sometimes I might wear the same one for 3-5 days. The only time I consciously think about it is when traveling for holidays - I think "Is this the watch I want to go through security with, and dive into a lake?" or "Am I gonna wear a suit, or not?"

Expensive watches are not comparable to cheap watches in my view. Just like a bottle of 50 year old whisky cannot be compared to a €10 cider - they are different things, with different audiences.

(Also: Get insurance. That takes away almost all worry :)

when I first could afford to but before I had responsibilities, I bought a breguet classique off secondary market, which is already understated, and I wear it with an even more understated leather band. I consciously chose to wear it as a daily cary, which means that on more than one occasion I wore it through ghettos on the way to raves, including through one attempted and failed robbery. By now it's well worn in, and I prefer it to be a subtle signal: those who don't care don't notice, so it's not ostentatious, those who pay attention but don't know will figure it out through closer observation, and those who know, don't need to ask any questions. I do occasionally consciously take them off so as not to be flashing, when that would be particularly crass or foolhardy.

I've lost many watches in my life, but this one has trained me in the discipline of care and attentiveness towards my possessions, which extends to all things and not just the watch.

There was no particularly good reason for me to buy it though, except for the watch maker name's frequent mention in the 19th century literature, including a famous line from Pushkin's Onegin, "he strolls down boulevards, until a sleepless Breguet, calls out time for supper". now it's likely that Onegin specifically didn't wear an actual breguet, because that was a generic name for a chiming timepiece, but the imagery stuck. I grew up on 19th century literature, byronic heroes, this line is explicit reference to flaneur culture, a self-conscious decadent movement, associated with aimless strolling down boulevards dressed in provocative clothing, breguet fits here, and that's the joke of the line: at a time when a timepiece would be associated with a serious vocation, politics or military, it is being used for the most frivolous task of letting one man know when it's time to eat. I reflect on this point occasionally, when I look at my watch.

Expensive watches are jewelry for men, that's about it.

It's really no different than people who pay more than they need to for a car or a home.

It's some combination of it being a status symbol and a "I can afford it and it's fun" kind of a deal.

There is a variety of attitudes, as with fancy cars, McMansions, or other "premium" goods. Some people wax their car every week, some people let it rust.

Watch theft isn't particularly common. I have a nice watch, I wear it daily, and I don't think about it much.

I have an expensive omega. I don't normally need to worry about it, because its not a famous watch, its not one that most people would recognise.

If I had a massive rolex/richard mile or some other painfully obvious watch, then yes, I would be much more reticent.

I got it because its a pioneer watch: https://www.omegamegaquartz.com/ it was the first watch that was stonkingly accurate. There are some citizens and seikos that are probably now more accurate (some of the seikos look damn good too.) But none of them look like this massive lump of 70s engineering.

Yes I am very fortunate to be temporarily rich.

I wear them every day, but take them off if I'm going to high crime cities. The thing is I've been collecting watches for over a decade. My parents are into it, and so is my younger brother. I think it's very rare to share a common interest that won't bore anyone at the dinner table. Now onto the horological aspects - they're like the iPhone / app store back in the day. Keeping track of leap years and all in a 36mm package (think Patek 3940s). Various complications to address various "limitations" of mechanical time telling like the remontoire, co-axial escapements or solid block case constructions for better waterproofness. It's not too different than some of us on HN who fall in love with old Apple IIs, NES or Sega Genesis :)