This is nothing more than a silly mental exercise, but on a long drive the other day my mind turned to watches (as it sometimes does), and I got to wondering about how much value I personally place on brand/prestige as a factor when deciding whether I believe a watch is worth its asking price. Only thinking about pricier luxury watches here (not Casios), and not necessarily about watches I’d actually want or be able to buy.

I’m wondering what other people think, too. I know this is a waste of time and brain-cells. But this is a watch forum, so…

The basic premise is that, say, a stainless steel Seamaster diver that costs $5,900 USD retail is---in terms of material and labor costs---probably “worth” a few hundred bucks. You can object and say we need to consider research, design & development, and marketing costs, etc, but even so, when you’re producing at the scale Omega/SWATCH is, I can’t imagine those costs amount to much for any individual item.

And yet I’d argue that the 300M diver is a reasonable value when you consider various other factors, and that’s the part that got me into the rabbit-hole. A thing is “worth” only what people are willing to pay for it, and I’d have no problem justifying $5,900 for that watch. Because…

-An in-house movement that has a long and storied evolutionary history. Co-axial escapement would be a part of this.
-A cultural history (for the watch itself), including connections to events and fictional characters.
-Its status relative to its Rolex counterpart, in that it’s less hyped but no less robust or attractive---obviously this is highly subjective---and it doesn’t generate the kind of judgment or resentment the other does.
-The allure of the Omega brand itself: this is the reputation/prestige bit.

If I’m being honest with myself, then, I’d probably value the-thing-in-itself at about $500. Which means the rather silly/emotional things I just enumerated make up more than 90% of its value to me.

Why would I possibly care so much about an in-house movement?: to my non-technical mind, a modified ETA would be just as beautiful and mystifying. And all the other stuff is based in marketing and social reasoning rather than anything inherent.

I guess some would call this a definition of “luxury.”

But what it got me wondering is: what luxury watch brand do you think sets retail prices that are fairly close (or at least closer than Omega’s) to actual intrinsic value? I’m guessing the answers may be watches at the extremes: more entry-level stainless watches (from, say, Tag?) or complicated precious metal watches that are slow sellers and can sometimes be obtained at less than retail price.

...Or are these just the ravings of a lunatic mind?

 

I think of an analogy to your thoughts. A supermarket! If a brand name product wants maximum exposure on the shelves in a supermarket for their higher priced, nationally advertised product, the manufacture pays a premium to the supermarket for shelf space that will give it maximum exposure. Other companies that may be marketing an identical product, likely out of the same plant, but with a different label and lower price, may not be prepared to pay a premium for high profile shelf space. Their lower priced product will be placed elsewhere on the shelves, thereby may be less noticeable.

I think it all comes down to advertising hype and product placement as to relative prices on very similar watches.

 

Something similar came up in a previous discussion. It got me thinking so I posted some peer reviewed papers regarding obtaining “luxury products. I think the PDF was too large it wouldn’t load properly.

I have of course lost those papers which makes me an idiot but if you do a search you can find it. But it did have some interesting “studies and theories

 

I don't know if you can upload PDF files to the forum unless you convert to images.

 

Ah Thanks for clarification next time I’ll just copy the abstract. Hope things are well for you.

 

I ran into this issue when I was trying to upload a patent. In the end, I think I just took a screenshot of the first page.

 

So if you have worked out a $500 price. (Not that I agree with that price)

Anything over $500 paid is money for a feeling.

 

I can tell you hublot is the most maligned.

 

With Panerai coming in second