Mildly interesting

[mark]

spin, spin, spin.

[Mik]

Well now you're just spinning it....

[Mik]

[jon-nyc]

[taiwan_girl]

[jon-nyc]

This is fascinating and beautiful but 400k?

[Mik]

I will never understand the fascination with expensive watches. Janet had a Rolex when we me. It was beautiful but needed a tune-up every two or three years at $300 a pop, and that was 30 years ago. I haven't spent $300 on watches in my life.

Again, there is a qualitative experiential difference between a Mercedes S class and an 88 (red) Corolla. two o'clock is 2 o'clock on a Rolex or a Timex.

[LuFins Dad]

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

I will never understand the fascination with expensive watches. Janet had a Rolex when we me. It was beautiful but needed a tune-up every two or three years at $300 a pop, and that was 30 years ago. I haven't spent $300 on watches in my life.

Again, there is a qualitative experiential difference between a Mercedes S class and an 88 (red) Corolla. two o'clock is 2 o'clock on a Rolex or a Timex.

What’s the qualitative difference between an $30 pendant and a $30K pendant?

[Mik]

The quality and beauty of the materials and design. But a pendant is not intended to measure anything or be informative.

[LuFins Dad]

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

The quality and beauty of the materials and design. But a pendant is not intended to measure anything or be informative.

Okay, let’s put it this way. What’s the Qualitative Experiential Difference in spending an extra $15K to get a piano in Bubinga instead of Ebony? The performance of the piano is the same…

[jon-nyc]

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

I will never understand the fascination with expensive watches. Janet had a Rolex when we me. It was beautiful but needed a tune-up every two or three years at $300 a pop, and that was 30 years ago. I haven't spent $300 on watches in my life.

That reminds me I need to send my IWC Portugueser in for a $500 tune up.

That’s a guess. It was maybe $375 when I did it last time but that was 15 years ago.

[jon-nyc]

Honestly I’ll probably tune it one last time and give it to my son for college graduation.

[Doctor Phibes]

@LuFins-Dad said in Mildly interesting:

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

The quality and beauty of the materials and design. But a pendant is not intended to measure anything or be informative.

Okay, let’s put it this way. What’s the Qualitative Experiential Difference in spending an extra $15K to get a piano in Bubinga instead of Ebony? The performance of the piano is the same…

In the case of the watch, the cheap option generally performs better.

I'm with Mik, I've never understood blowing tens of thousands on a watch.

[Mik]

@LuFins-Dad said in Mildly interesting:

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

The quality and beauty of the materials and design. But a pendant is not intended to measure anything or be informative.

Okay, let’s put it this way. What’s the Qualitative Experiential Difference in spending an extra $15K to get a piano in Bubinga instead of Ebony? The performance of the piano is the same…

Because it is a large piece of furniture and needs to look good in your house. Beside that the difference in price between ebony and a wood finish is not orders of magnitude like between a functional and high-end watch.

If you wanted to use pianos, you could simply say the choice between a Samick and a Bechstein. There's a huge qualitative difference in the experience and the performance. That does not apply to watches.

[LuFins Dad]

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

@LuFins-Dad said in Mildly interesting:

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

The quality and beauty of the materials and design. But a pendant is not intended to measure anything or be informative.

Okay, let’s put it this way. What’s the Qualitative Experiential Difference in spending an extra $15K to get a piano in Bubinga instead of Ebony? The performance of the piano is the same…

Because it is a large piece of furniture and needs to look good in your house. Beside that the difference in price between ebony and a wood finish is not orders of magnitude like between a functional and high-end watch.

If you wanted to use pianos, you could simply say the choice between a Samick and a Bechstein. There's a huge qualitative difference in the experience and the performance. That does not apply to watches.

Yes, there’s a huge qualitative difference between a Bechstein and a Samick. That’s why I didn’t use that. But let’s stick with Bechstein. A Bechstein C8 upright piano is $88,000 in Vavona and $73,000 in Ebony. There is no qualitative difference in performance. It produces the same quality of tone, the same notes. It performs the basic function exactly the same. So why pay more?

Now you note that the furniture might look better in your home. Great. But that’s subjective not quantitative, and is irrelevant to the primary purpose of the machine, to translate your input into music. So the subjective value of the appearance will justify the higher price despite no qualitative

And yes, $15K isn’t orders of magnitude more expensive, but there are many other examples… Bösendorfer 225’s start ~ $200K Here’s one for $10,000,000 https://pollaro.com/moonlight/

Pretty sure that’s orders of magnitude for an item whose primary function has no qualitative difference. Now we can argue that the Moonlight has other functions as cabinet, design, etc… I would argue that the same thing holds true for a watch. I’m not a watch guy (or jewelry at all for that matter), but I can understand it. I can see where having a beautiful piece if art and jewelry that is built by hand with that intricate machinery and still maintain time that is only .00000002% off a digital watch can be incredibly appealing…

[Mik]

You are deliberately missing the point. There’s not the huge difference between 73 and 88 as there is in watches.

[taiwan_girl]

I dont have any expensive watches, but I think for people who "collect" them or buy them, they are like pieces or art.

The price itself does not justify what you receive, just as if you were buying a painting by a famous person that costs USD$XXX+ dollars.

For sure, if you just buying something to tell time, then you would not buy an expensive watch.

[Doctor Phibes]

For a mere $430,000, you too can look like a Russian oligarch!

I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder

[Horace]

On his deathbed, he'll have a Rosebud moment where a single tear will stream down his cheek as he laments that nobody ever asked him what time it was.

[Mik]

@Horace

POTD