Quote:
Originally Posted by NemesisX
Yes, but most watches do not provide a good means to properly assess wealth. I don't buy this notion that people who wear more expensive watches are wealthier than those who don't. If I see someone wearing a $20,000 watch, I can be ~95% certain that this person makes somewhere between $75,000 a year and $13,000,000,000 a year (the top earner for 2013, Warren Buffet) and has a net worth somewhere between $100,000 and $60,000,000,000 (Bill Gates).
The point is, there are ways to conceivably pay for a $20,000 watch over a sufficiently large financing term that are accessible to someone who makes as little as $75,000 a year or as much as $13 billion a year.
An individual making $75,000 could put aside $5,000 (and change for interest) towards this watch and live off of the remaining $70,000 for a short period of time. That's not all that surprising, nor is it impressive.
All I've learned about someone who wears a $20,000 watch is that this individual isn't homeless and totally devoid of wealth.
Cars, too, are not a good way to properly assess wealth for the exact same reason, although it's much more difficult to drive an increasingly expensive luxury car on lower income than it is to wear an increasingly expensive luxury watch. Watches can always be sold with relatively minimal depreciation (or, rarely with minimal appreciation).
In my experience the best indicator of wealth is one's house. This is not to say wealthy people always live in expensive houses, but rather expensive houses almost always house wealthy people. You can't just easily finance your way to living in a $10,000,000 house on a $75,000 income. The monthly payment on such a house is more than this individual's annual gross income. Someone who lives in a $10,000,000 house is going to be wealthy by most peoples' standards. Someone who wears a $20,000 watch? Who knows.
I also (as usual) completely agree with tony20009's last post.
Edit: I see this post and wonder which strata are you talking about, DocMick?
What income or net worth 'strata' do the luxury watches mentioned in this thread (Rolex, Omega, Breitling, AP, IWC, etc.) represent?
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I see what you did there... and there.
My post is self explanatory. The ability to enjoy the finer things. A large subjective "eye of the beholder" component goes into what each different individual defines as wealth.
I never offered up a particular income bracket previously, so I won't care to now. But since you so vaguely and yet so distinctly assigned income/wealth definitions to watch owners, primarily to mock owners of 20k watches as pretentious non-wealthy types, I'm sure you can answer your own question with great eloquence.
But if the wearer of said $20k watch admitted it was a replica, does this catapult him now into a higher income/wealth strata? I look forward to reading between the lines.
These kind of in-depth dick measuring discussions are quite the staple of car luxury lifestyle aka "I'm more Alpha than you, Bro" forums.
