Ulysses writes:
The vintage watches are indeed different (of exceptional quality). But that was before the desperate push towards huge margins after the quartz crisis. Seems they had a Scarlett O'Hara moment and vowed never to be in such a disastrous position ever again, and so here we are in the present - the Swiss watch industry goes from strength to strength, raking in huge profits for very little additional offered value, coasting along on mind-share alone. Rolex make high quality watches but then so do hundreds of other watch companies, many of whom people have never heard of.
Someone mentioned on a similarly-themed thread on ABTW that in a country like India, the value of jewellery (i'm including watches in this definition) is mainly evaluated by the weight of gold and silver and gemstones it contains. In the case of your restored Rolex I can fully appreciate the value of the gold and gems inside it. Besides, being a vintage model it probably received more care and attention in its production. The deceptive aspect comes in when in TV commercials Rolex would claim that it takes a year to produce a watch. Things like that are designed to mislead the consumer. I would admire the brand a lot more if they spent more time crafting their watches than crafting their image.
I enjoy telling people that my watch is a fake (Rolex)
They look at the watch and find ways to agree with me.
I'm a little crazy, but it's a fun kind of crazy.
Posted by: Geezer | January 04, 2013 at 09:37 AM