Why Alex Proud is wrong and high-end watches are good for society

It seems that some people see no place for high-end watches. Alex Proud appears to be one of these people, claiming (only mildly self-righteously) on The Telegraph website that a high-end watch is ‘a product that people only want because it is expensive.’ The serial arts entrepreneur claims that fine watches are ‘status symbols for men who don’t have imagination’ and that, ‘if you want a truly accurate watch, you go down your local petrol station and spend £10 on a Casio’. Oh dear.

When it comes to purchasing any luxury item, function can often play second fiddle to aesthetics and design, and it may be true that a £10 Casio quartz watch can keep time just as well as a £20,000 Patek Philippe. But Mr. Proud is completely missing the point.

A t-shirt’s primary, and primal, function is to hide your skin – something that a £5 t-shirt from ASDA will do just as well as a £150 sea island cotton rag – but the latter will feel more luxurious, fit better, last longer and most importantly, feel special. You’ll know that time, effort and skill has gone into its creation and because you know that it’s the real deal – you’ll feel good wearing it. The same goes for watches.

The man hours put into creating even the smallest moving part in a Patek Philippe timepiece is quite staggering. Centuries old techniques are used and some of the finest materials known to man come together to create an intricate work of art that, if well looked after, will last more than one lifetime. This is why people, other than Mr. Proud, spend hard-earned money on pieces of metal that, technically, hold no greater purpose than to help you boil your egg to perfection.

But it’s not all form and function. Fine watches can be great investments and, although there are plenty of monstrosities on the market, a well chosen timepiece will hold and if you’re lucky, or use the right dealer, even increase in value.

The majority of us will never have the pleasure of wearing, let alone purchasing a £20,000 (or more) wrist watch, but if they didn’t exist, there would be nothing to aspire to and, all the worse for me, much less to write about. If Pagani or Koenigsegg were to cease production of their fine automobiles, if Steven Spielberg were to stop making movies with outrageous budgets and if all of us, thanks to Mr. Proud, were to stop trying to excel in everything we did and fulfilling our potential, then life would be considerably less interesting.

I’m sure it would suit Mr. Proud (and his fellow champions of mediocrity), as we could all wear Casios and drive Ford Mondeos, but it certainly wouldn’t suit me and, for the sake of this magazine, I hope it wouldn’t suit you either.

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