Realy, How much better can they be???

O.K. Ive been looking at some higher end watches as of late and realy would like to know how much better can they be?? For a comparison take the breitling seawolf, extremely well made, 3000 mt w.r. auto base 2824 on bracelet it retails for $4,090 at 24% off you can get a new one for around $3,100 now compare that to say the blancpain fifty fathoms, yes it has a great pedigree and in house movement, 300 mt w.r., comes on a strap and retails for $13,800 at 28% off you can get one new (non ad) for $9,936 so its about 7k more for the blancpain. the seawolf is a great watch and interms of being quality made i just dont see how any watch can be made any better? now interms of componets, yes they can use better componets, such as in house movements. But is it worth 7k more to have a awesome pedigree and in house movement??? Any thoughts you have would be great to hear and this comparison can be done on any high end brand with non in house movement vs in house. Ive been seeing a lot of ap roos as of late, not my cup of tea but i looked them up retail starts at $22,700 at 22% off thats $17,700 Wow i would have thought they would be made out of solid platnium for that kind of money. give me your thoughts. Steve

Steve, I see where you are coming from and I would ask the same. Something does seem a bit out of line, but, if you look at some of the work that goes into watchmaking, especially with in house movements, you can at least see why the increase in price is somewhat justified. Name brand, rarity in numbers, material used, etc., etc., also influence the price. With that being said, I think there comes a point when the similarities in materials and build quality are close enough that the discrepancy in price points ( meaning the higher cost watch) is not justified. Just where that line between build and price is I don't know; ie: does a $4,000.00 watch compare with a $15,000.00 watch or is it a $7,000.00 price tag that is equivalent to the 15,000.00 one?
Great question Steve! Would like to hear what others have to say.

Have to agree with John, Steve, this really is a GREAT question, and topic ! It's something
that you can't help but think about since we are interested in watches so much. There are
all of these great watches out there, but some have always been said to be better than
the rest. I have always just accepted that they were better in quality, materials, build, and
overall watchmaking like you guys are saying. Nevertheless, it's still fun trying to figure
out what exactly separates watches. For myself, I honestly don't have much first hand
experience because my watches are on the lower end of the watch spectrum. However,
have still been learning about all of these watches for a while now like the rest of you, and
always wondered exactly what separates them from eachother. Maybe the overall quality,
build, craftsmanship, and time creating them is part of it, but maybe even more than all
of that, it's the name on the dial. Because from what I have seen, and heard many of the
great watches we see here, seem hard to match, or beat. Maybe the extremely high-end
watches ARE a little better than the really really good watches, but their probably not many
thousands of dollars better imho. Even when you compare medium range watches to the
very elite watches you are mentioning Steve, it is interesting. Take for example an aviation
pilot style watch from Hamilton for instance, or a Flieger style watch from Steinhart like
the Nav B-uhr or any other quality aviation watch. How do they compare to an IWC Big
Pilot ?! ..Are they that much less of a watch than the Big Pilot, or are people paying for
a name ?! In any case, it's alot of fun to think, and talk about. ..Thanks !

What if we replace Breitling and Blancpain with Rolex and Timex? Both make a nice sub that looks great and tells time, why buy one over the other? Maybe a little extreme but the same idea. The Blancpain is much more exclusive than the Brietling. Better made? mmmmm...maybe or maybe not. More exclusive? For sure...I tried on a dozen Breitlings but only one FF.....the FF is my choice even at 3x the price.

One might ask the same question at other price levels. I can't seem to bring muyself to spend more than 1K for any watch. I told myself a while back that I would sell some silver when it got to $30 an ounce and buy a real watch. Well, it got to near $50. I sold some but can't seem to part with the cash (not even tempted-which surprises me). I understand that makes me an anomaly in these parts but it is what it is.

merichar wrote:

I understand that makes me an anomaly in these parts but it is what it is.

Ah Mark, that would be Alan........