WSJ article: "The four major purchases people regret the most."

I paid $2200 for a new Rolex Submariner in 1986.

Article is stupid. People forget about the relative depreciation of most major currencies to the Swiss franc over the last 50 years. Workers in Swiss factories get paid in francs not dollars. For most of the 20th century, the Swiss government manipulated the market in its currency to keep the cost of a franc artificially low. This allowed them to sell goods in the rest of the world at prices that bankrupted manufacturers in other countries who tried to compete. Since Switzerland is such a small country, they had capability to massively export only a few products. Of course, watches were near the top of that list.

Beginning in the 1970’s, the franc was allowed to float on world currency markets and its value rose by several multiples (about 5 in the USA) over the next 50 years.

You can see the effects by adding data to the charts found here:

https://www.measuringworth.com/datasets/exchangeglobal/

gatorcpa