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.
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 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.
2. What does "I have a radar filed" mean?
Thanks for clarifications.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eau_de_toilette
Radar is Apple's internal bug tracker - "a radar" is an Apple(tm) bug report.
It needs to be a signal that can't easily be faked to be useful.
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.
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.
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.)