Luxury watch

Ever since I started intensively learning about watches in the early 2000s, one fact was abundantly apparent to me: I wasn’t going to be able to afford most of this stuff. Like many other watch lovers out there, my interaction with this hobby is one of both patience and abstinence. I simply cannot have much of what I find interesting. Nevertheless, I voraciously consume information about products and brands that my bank account has no business flirting with. Is it because I have a masochistic tendency to tease myself with things that are just beyond my reach, or is there a larger value in learning about products that I cannot buy? Check this replica rolex.

One of the most popular sentiments we see on aBlogtoWatch after publishing content about particularly expensive or lavish products seems to be, “Who is this product made for, and who is buying this?” There appears to be not only dissonance that these products are unaffordable to most but also curiosity as to who is actually buying them. We timepiece enthusiasts even go to great lengths to imagine in our minds what types of personalities purchase and wear some of the world’s most expensive watches. This often results in rather silly conversations about the fashion and lifestyle choices of celebrities and oligarchs. What I have found is that those people are often more similar to regular watch enthusiasts than we might expect — only they have more expanded budgets. A short summary of the situation is to suggest that most of us, if given that type of disposable income, would probably make similar watch purchase decisions.

Nevertheless, there is a larger topic to discuss related to the wisdom of even reading about watches you cannot afford. There are some people, merely seeking to limit their own levels of stress, who feel it is a waste of time to learn about watches they cannot afford. They would prefer that each timepiece choice presented to them in our human-curated aBlogtoWatch stream, or software algorithms elsewhere, be something they can afford (and ideally, suited to their own individual tastes). This approach, however, is decidedly different from my own philosophy, and if anything, I encourage people to learn about and get excited about watches they cannot afford.

Let’s first look at things from a historical perspective. Timepieces started out as ultra-luxury items in the 17th and 18th centuries, affordable only to royalty, elites, and the world’s most powerful merchants. It was not until the late 19th century that timepieces of any kind became affordable enough for more people in society to own them. It was not until the 20th century that timepieces became affordable enough for nearly anyone to own. That means that, for much of the history of timepieces and watches, only the highest economic classes could afford them.

During most of the 20th century, affordable wristwatches were designed as inexpensive alternatives to fancier wristwatches. Alternatively, inexpensive wristwatches were functional tools with little artistic or emotive value much of the time. It was not until the late 1980s and 1990s that an enthusiast watch community really started to form, bringing timekeeping as art (versus a form of utility) to adoring wrists. Since then, the market for enthusiast watches of all types has exploded, with fans today easily misunderstanding the historical narrative around how mainstream watch enthusiasts (as opposed to high-luxury spenders) are a relatively recent market phenomenon.