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>the modern upper class that wearing a $2k Rolex or driving a $70k BMW is frowned upon. There was a time, not that long time ago in which good clocks were expe
by cracrecry 4y ago
>the modern upper class that wearing a $2k Rolex or driving a $70k BMW is frowned upon.
There was a time, not that long time ago in which good clocks were expensive and expending 2ks on a good clock was similar to expending 2k on a laptop today, a functional, reasonable decision.
My uncle earned a much more expensive Rolex than 2k in a Golf tournament and wearing it nobody believed it was genuine, even a watchmaker could not differentiate it from sight, there are very good Chinese knockoffs for cheap anywhere.
Also, after quartz oscillator clocks, a 2k clock does not work better than a 100 one.
People spend their money on whatever they see fit. One of the great things of having money is having freedom in your life but few people knowing that you have it.
In places like Spain or France people do not admire you for having money, on the contrary they envy you, and you better not show off. Also gold diggers and interested parties like banks start to harass you all the time. And criminals what to take it from you by force.
- trasz2 4y agoTechnically a Rolex, however expensive, will always be much worse as a watch than a 20$ Casio. But recently there's another aspect to this: there are now watches that are technically (mechanically) identical to rolexes. Same design, same mechanics, virtually impossible to tell the difference when you tear it apart. Rolex has always been more about marketing (artificial scarcity, waiting list etc) than mechanics, but now it's pretty much exclusively about marketing, since you can get the same engineering orders of magnitude cheaper. It's like DeBeers' diamonds.
- fnbr 4y agoWhat’s an example of a watch that’s mechanically identical to a Rolex?
- AussieWog93 4y agoIt's pretty common now to find "Super Fakes" of designer brands, that are very difficult to tell apart from the real thing. They'll be expensive but not as expensive as the real thing.
- coredog64 4y agoA Seiko SKX (or a spiritual successor) with a regulated NH35 will fall into the same “100m water resistance, accurate to within 10 seconds per day” category as a Rolex for about a 10th of the price.
- jjtheblunt 4y agoTudor, but it is a different division of Rolex
- steveBK123 4y agoCorrect, a G-shock would get the job done better. I always viewed watches as the only mainstream sociable acceptable form of male jewelry. And regardless of which model, generally no more expensive than a woman's engagement or wedding ring, and actually usually cheaper. Plus it does something other than look pretty - tells time & date!
- papandada 4y agoWatches, pens, pocket knives, flashlights, seem to be a cluster of male jewelry. Fidget spinners too, at one time.
- TheOtherHobbes 4y agoPrestige cars, mega yachts, private jets, and corporations that make rockets and satellites are also male jewellery. But the article: it's repetitive and slightly rambling and reads like it was written by some variant of GPT. The point is fair, but it's also well known to class watchers. In the UK nouveau means a gigantic new build mansion full of chrome and glass, a private gym, and plastic and dental surgery. Old means a small country estate, a Georgian pied-à-terre somewhere near the City, tweedy clothing, and perhaps some pedigree dogs. And horses. Old money tends to underdress - sometimes sloppily - and on casual acquaintance is indistinguishable from the merely middle class. It's not until you get an invite to the manor house that you discover the ridiculously impractical and expensive Aga stove, the collection of wildly expensive antiques whose prices are never mentioned [1], the relaxed air of charming quizzical bafflement. (Very few of these people are unusually bright or talented. But socially polished - yes.) The visuals are not the point. Anyone can tweed, but not everyone can tweed like they've been doing it their entire lives and really mean it. [1] A 17th century silver spoon for £5000? How fascinating!
- notinfuriated 4y ago> Prestige cars, mega yachts, private jets, and corporations that make rockets and satellites are also male jewellery. If we're going down this line, why stop here? You forgot the 'trophy wife' which is definitely more prevalent than the dig at Musk/Bezos.
- moneywoes 4y agoWhere can one get those similar Rolex’s? For science
- bri3d 4y agoThe search term you want is just "Replica." RWI, RWG, RepTime on Reddit, and other private forums will analyze the quality and details of these clones in ridiculous detail. They also have reviews of each reseller and each factory. I don't even own any fake watches at this point and I've found these forums highly addictive/interesting - honestly, the average skill/knowledge level is quite high compared to most "watch enthusiast" forums.
- maigret 4y agoThanks for the hints. About the replicas: Yes but usually you’ll find a few challenges with those. First, pure replicas are illegal, so what you can find legally are called hommages with another logo. That doesn’t make them worst by itself, but here are the drawbacks: First the maintenance. What is the probability those watches will still be serviceable in 50 years? I own a watch that’s more than 50 years and wear it regularly because it is still maintained by the company who made it. Second the value holding. Sure you can sink your money in any gear. The special value of great mechanical watches is that they maintain their used value well on the second hand market for decades. An hommage will have little reputation of its own to maintain. Of course this is all subject to special cases, but, etc because the watch world is very complex. For example many brands copy each other, some replica brand make great quality, and some great brands barely hold their value (which is a good thing for passionate collectors). No doubt there is a great skilled and passionate community around reproduction, like in music or art. To build a replica you need way more skill than the average watch enthusiast. They rarely outskill the examples they copy still.
- rosnd 4y ago>First the maintenance. What is the probability those watches will still be serviceable in 50 years Extremely high, given that they tend to run on clones of incredibly popular movements like the ETA2824.
- ROTMetro 4y agoI have a more obscure watch, but one that those that care recognize. It has signaled me as part of the 'correct' crowd more than once and definitely done it's purpose.
- depressedpanda 4y agoWhat purpose is this? What happens when your watch signals that you belong to the correct crowd?
- MacsHeadroom 4y agoPeople with money and power respect you more and are more likely to drop their guard in some ways. This applies to in-group signaling generally. In this case the in-group is the rich and powerful.
- vba616 4y agoSomewhere I read that a Rolex has a very practical purpose - a real one is a commodity that can fairly easily be turned into cash or a bribe in an emergency, but as a watch, it's not susceptible to being seized by authorities in many circumstances where cash or gold might be. I don't know if this is true, but it makes a good story.
- hammock 4y agoApplies to jewelry in general, however Rolex tends to hold its value better than most jewelry (vs price paid)
- neilknowsbest 4y agoAlong this vein, I've heard somewhere that pimps wear lots of jewelry because they can pawn it for bail money. Apparently cash can be seized on arrest, but jewelry is classified as some sort of personal property and thus won't be taken.
- astrange 4y agoThat is the reason women used to own jewelry and you were supposed to give them expensive wedding rings. They couldn’t have bank accounts!
- tetris11 4y agoIs it envy, or disgust? If someone tells me they live in a castle, my initial instinct isn't "wow I wish in a castle too", but "wow what a wasteful needless thing to brag about".
- i0null 4y agoBe cautious, the word "envy" is typically thrown around by folks that want to justify "greed". OC, there are reasonable scales between the two but equating success to having nicer material things is really a subjective value judgement. In all honesty the salient points in the OP about judging instead of thinking, is a commonly attributed aphorism to Carl Jung yet there is no reference to it. The point about tardiness and drawbacks this apparently has on socialising and career progression comes across as utilitarian to the point of sounding sociopathic.
- AlbertCory 4y agoI bought a fake "Rolex" in Thailand, for $10. It actually didn't work very well. I guess there's a hierarchy even among the fake.
- mozman 4y agoI bought a $400 fake rolex. Aside from the glass not being sapphire you cannot tell the difference visually
- moneywoes 4y agoFrom whereabouts?
- ROTMetro 4y agoI got some fakes from a big warehouse in Shanghai. They had all levels of prices/quality. Our corporate guide found the shop for us. They had a whole wall of fake watches of different brands. My ex-wife got purses. I much preferred my real watches, but the fakes were for fancy dinners downtown in the big city in case I got mugged.
- mozman 4y agoLook for fake watch forums and their trusted vendor list. That’s how I found the seller I bought from. Took 4 weeks to arrive direct from China
- pclmulqdq 4y agoIs the escapement running at the same rate? A big part of the "rolex" appearance that is very hard to copy is the 8 ticks per second that the second hand goes through. I have seen very high quality Rolex copies before that don't do that, and are instantly recognizable as a fake to people who know a little bit about watches.
- dagw 4y agoIs the escapement running at the same rate? Absolutely. Modern fake Rolexes can only be told apart from a real one by an expert examining it with a loupe. And 8 tick pr second isn't that hard to replicate. Several ETA and Sellita calibers do it as well.
- taeric 4y agoI'm going to make the assertion that personal clocks were basically never with that much. They were as functionally useful as a gold bracelet for the best majority of owners.
- pvaldes 4y ago> In places like Spain or France people do not admire you for having money, on the contrary they envy you Or maybe not. You mileage may vary. This would depend a lot on how do you earned it.
- g42gregory 4y agoLast time the lowest-end Rolex was $2k was probably 30 years ago. :-)
- wolverine876 4y ago> In places like Spain or France people do not admire you for having money, on the contrary they envy you, and you better not show off. Also gold diggers and interested parties like banks start to harass you all the time. And criminals what to take it from you by force. You're saying that wealthy people in France and Spain don't show it, and if they do they are commonly robbed?