While you are right, I feel compelled to point out that mechanical luxury watches are expensive not because of IP (they expired long ago, as you point out), but

While you are right, I feel compelled to point out that mechanical luxury watches are expensive not because of IP (they expired long ago, as you point out), but because they are: 1. Assembled by hand (in Switzerland, for the most famous brands, where labour isn't cheap) 2. Made of precious material, as you pointed out. 3. Require a lot of R&D and design to develop (fitting movements and complications in each model's unique case is a hard problem). 4. Very limited numbers of them are produced (mostly because of 1.). It's common for watches to be unique. 5. Come with an "eternal" warranty (they will fix my dead grandpa's watch for free, forever). So while having a CNC and a 3d printer, making a wearable watch to the same specs will be quite a challenge.