When looking at the world through the eyes of a watchmaker, one only really takes note of two types of people — those who just don’t get the magnetism of luxury timepieces and those who do. Well you’d perhaps also see it that way if you looked at the world through a watchmaker’s loupe, but seriously though some people just don’t understand why high-quality timepieces cost what they do.
The average Joe might not be able to grasp the reasons why a tastemaker or watch connoisseur would readily part with around £2,200 for a rather simple-looking Logines watch (and claim to be going for the minimalist look) or pay a good £5,999 for a luxury Breitling Navitimer. The truth is there are a few very good reasons why certain timepieces cost the kind of money that would have them needing to be protected with watch insurance and just one of those reasons is what goes into making these watches.
A whole lot of technology goes into making a timepiece and I’m talking here technology in the true sense of the term, that being processes and materials which are used intelligently to make whatever process one is engaged in easier, which in this case is putting together a timepiece.
If we speak about tech in that regard, one would have otherwise thought about automation and the likes, with expensive robotic hands assembling the components of a mass produced watch, but that’s where the difference between the said mass produced watch and a unique timepiece comes into play.
I mean why does a mass produced watch cost considerably less than a luxury timepiece?
It takes a lot of creative design, careful planning, skilful assembling and unique craftsmanship for something like a Breitling to finally hit the display cabinets of a timepiece dealer and although the process of putting it all together would appear not to be as high-tech as robotically assembled, mass-produced watches, a lot more tech goes into the making of a luxury timepiece than that which goes into the mass produced watch.
For one, a mass-produced watch always requires the use of a watch battery — you know, those flattened cylindrical batteries which can be really hard to find, while on the other hand a luxury timepiece at its very best perhaps requires special winding and then keeps ticking for life because it makes use of something like the quartz atom to maintain precision, while the energy contained in your wrist is all which it needs to kick-start this movement again.
That’s what I’m talking about when referring to much more sophisticated tech that goes into the making of timepieces and that’s one of the reasons why luxury timepieces are exactly that and cost as much as they do.
So if you buy a luxury timepiece you’re making more of an investment than merely buying a time-telling instrument, so much so that some rare pieces actually appreciate in value, while pretty much all of them at the very least maintain their value as time ticks by.
