There's no comparison between a Rolex/AP etc to an watch. They are very different things. My watch is a workout tool. If you have never owned a timepiece & are not into collecting you wouldn't understand. The same way non tech people don't understand why fans feel that they always need the latest and greatest new product
Ohh. Not sure about this.
There is a very strong comparison between traditional mechanical watches and tech in terms of appreciation. It takes knowledge to appreciate a complicated dress watch, and it takes knowledge to appreciate a piece of modern tech.
A smartwatch is massively more complicated and wonderful than the greatest dress watch. You could take all the greatest ateliers from Audemars, Jaeger etc and they wouldn't have a clue how to make one.
So why isn't the appreciation for smartwatches on par with the appreciation for dress watches? And why are the prices so disparate.
That's all very simple - scale. Smartwatches are made on an industrial scale that requires a planet wide force to produce, but can thereby reduce the cost.
If dress watch makers wanted to increase the scale, they could. But they'd lose their prestigious image. And that's all the dress watch is, an artificially restrained production which keeps costs high. Then you inflate the retail price of course!
In terms of materials costs, you can pad any product with high end materials.
So what's the problem with smartwatches being valuable? It's that this planet wide production force has become too efficient, and the designers have become ambitious, too clever. They can produce anything they want in the millions, then before they're even done, they can design something better and reboot the production line.
So we have disposable 'tech'. Rarity/Value, etc. You know that as well as I do, everyone here does, no lessons are needed. But that shouldn't stop anyone from taking a moment to appreciate how incredible a smartwatch is.
In fact, anyone who has
genuine appreciation for the toolmaking that goes into a good dress watch, would also have a true appreciation for the even more advanced toolmaking that goes into a smartwatch and its components.