Quote:
Originally Posted by se15679875
The vast majority of people who wear expensive watches don't actually have a lot of money. That's not a knock on anyone in this thread; it's just a statistical fact.
However, that being said, if you wear an expensive watch there's a greater chance that you may be wealthy compared to the general population.
For example, something like 1% of the general population are liquid millionaires (assets - debt not including primary residence). However, among the Rolex-wearing population, that jumps to 6% (the highest among all watch brands). Among the Audemar Piguet-wearing population, that figure jumps to 5%. PP is around 5% as well, as is IWC. All other brands fall below these figures.
So yeah it's weakly correlated but those figures also mean that 94% of Rolex owners and 95% of AP owners aren't millionaires.
I was actually kind of surprised when I learned the statistics. Beforehand I would've guessed that 75 or 80% of AP/PP/IWC wearers are millionaires given that those watches routinely cost in excess of $10,000.
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I'm not familiar with any stats such as the one you cited, but I guess that is what it is, both my unfamiliarity and the stats. I'm pretty sure most of the rich folks I know own and wear a Rolex, but then that's not representative of much of anything other than my casual observations of folks at certain gatherings, and I certainly have no specific idea of how liquid they are or aren't. I do know they are well off because the property taxes on all their homes is well over $250K, so I know they come up with at least that much cash annually.
I am posting as a "watch guy" just to say that when it comes to mass market brands such as Rolex, Omega, Tag and others, it's very hard to say much about the wealth position of such folks. So many folks buy them, many buy them pre-owned, many are given as corporate gifts, heck, lots of very regular folks will just save up to buy one.
Indeed, Rolex
et al are so common that as a "guy into watches, " I don't even bother enjoining a Rolex wearing stranger in a chat. Not even so much as to just say "nice watch." (unless they are wearing a Cellini) I will do that if I see someone wearing some of the more esoteric, if you will, watches. Folks wearing Nomos, or Glashutte Original, Obris Morgan, or Sea-Gull, for example, but for sure there are lots of other brands that would inspire me to chat, at least briefly.
I don't know how rich those guys are, and really I don't care as I am certain they aren't about to gift me a tidy bundle of cash. LOL. The one thing that I'm generally pretty sure of, however, is that they are into watches. For me, that a person is "into watches" is far more interesting and worth a little banter than whether they buy expensive ones.
All the best.
EDIT:
FWIW, The price of entry for many of IWC's lines is sub-$10K. That's so in even for their Portuguese line (manufacture), which is the one that is most desired by "watch folks." That sum won't gain one entry with AP or PP, even used current models run above $10K. That doesn't make anything wrong with IWC watches, and God knows one doesn't need to spend $10K to get a very fine watch. I just wanted to clarify.