Many times I am asked why are some of the best brands so expensive ! Trying to explain this on a one on one level is like trying to explain the difference in a fine wine versus a jug wine or fine chocolate vs. a Hershey bar.
They all have a place in the economy and there is room in the economy for an extravagance ,enthusiast, or just passion as fine art.
http://www.hautehorlogerie.org/en/encyclopaedia/metiers-art/
This website offers dozens of video's all about 3 minutes that you can enjoy in your leisure. Designed to excite the passions of maybe a new student I found them to be a great testament, to the art to explain some of the complications, the engineering and art. ( Look to the left side menu from this link)
In particular pay attention to the complicated watches as no matter how fine the machinery that makes the parts, there is always a certain amount of hand finishing and part modification to get these watches to work perfect. In some cases a very complicated watch can take up to 10 days to assemble and adjust. A diamond dial can take up to 10-15 hours to set by a master setter. Each set of the process is very labor intensive and in the end you have a piece of art that you can wear the rest of your life.
You will think that some of the 10-20K watches are bargains after seeing this and understand why people pay 100's of thousands for some of the rare hand made unique watches.
In a conversation I had yesterday I reminded myself of all the old wrist watches and pocket watches I have collected over the years and I think I'm going to re-build a few more collectible and memorable watches to wear myself.
It was a passion of excellence from old watchmaker Howard Hawkins from Vermont that also designed machinery like the lathe that cut the Gyro for the fist space program ( And then he make that part as well in 16 year period he work for them. ) I loved stopping by his store sometime after work and just listened to all the stories from Sherve, Crump and Low in Boston, Waltham Watch Company after WWII, and Chelsea Clock Company. It started me on one of my career paths as well.
Hope you enjoy this site -Al
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