Horological Meandering

But of course I don't think any of us would begrudge them their "rewards" of hard work and genius; I think consumers (at least the reasonable ones, anyway) only have a problem when it is to excess.

Of course, excess is hard to define, universally (kinda like defining porn) and highly contextual to each individual. What is "excessive" to you may not be "excessive" to me...

Most of us here on PuristSPro probably would rather brands with celebrity endorsements save that money and pass it back to us their customers by lower prices or higher intrinsic value, but most of us (reasonably) accept that that is the brand owner's decision and we can decide if the "surcharge" is something we can stomach or not.

Of course there are some of us that love to go on crusades...

To term RM "mainly a casemaker" is perhaps a little harsh, but RM is indeed a very interesting case study.

So too MB and F - I remember Max telling me he wanted to avoid POS (points of sale, ie, doors ie dealers) even though he started with some important doors like Westtime and Hourglass and other key accounts he cultivated from his Harry Winston days...  Look at how many POS he has today; things evolve, things change...that's just life.

Peter Speake-Marin was even more specific about wanting to avoid retailers...

But I'm getting off your main post points.

Chinese buyers globally (to address Marcus Hanke's point) do account for a large proportion of luxury buying today, maybe even a majority, but the days of easy money selling crap or quickly sinocized market specific models like throwing a dragon or phoenix on the dial are numbered.

The Chinese are nothing if not quick learners, and the Chinese market is evolving faster than most people realize from country bumpkin stupid nouveau rich chasing only prestige and bragging rights to sophisticated well educated consumers of quality and culture; this development, like their economy overall, is and will develop far faster than so called "developed" markets in their equivalent developmental stages.

This is not a prediction; this is a fact.

Which is not to say there aren't many many many "I don't care about quality, I just want the most expensive" Chinese buyers still, just as there are American, Isreali, German,  Russian, et al such buyers.

You mentioned a Chinese saying, here is another I have heard in the past - "Anyone with money can collect jewels and gold; it takes culture and taste to appreciate timepieces."

Cheers, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

TM

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