I had the privilege of trying out a $15,000 Panama hat. There is a qualitative difference between a $100 Panama hat and a $15,000 dollar one, but still, paying $15,000 or more for a hat is quite a luxury acquisition.
A finer weave makes them a lot smoother, lighter, and more flexible, which is useful in really hot and humid climates. The guy in the shop said that the daily progress for such a hat is adding about a centimeter to the hat each day.
I think it's like watches, once you go above $100 dollars you are out of "I want a practical accessory" and into "I want to own something rare and/or unique".
I guess if you have the money it looks like a good deal, I can't imagine spending $15,000 on a hat but then I can't imagine spending it on much of anything (a car perhaps).
It's interesting that there are still products (hats, watches, cars, ...) for which the finest examples are made by craftsmen with enormous skill, and not by machine.
>It's interesting that there are still products (hats, watches, cars, ...) for which the finest examples are made by craftsmen with enormous skill, and not by machine.
Eh, for a lot of those, the thing you are buying is the... immeasurable something you get from it being made by hand. Uniqueness. What someone like me might call flaws.
My Toyota van is gonna be way more reliable than a Maybach Landaulet. It can haul more, too. Hell, if I got a more expensive Toyota, say, one of the faster lexus LS models that is more in the shape of the Landaulet, it wouldn't even be much any slower, and the LS is, if not affordable, at least realistic for your average silicon valley tech nerd.
I'm not saying that a Lexus LS really compares to a Maybach Landaulet in the market or in people's minds; it doesn't. One is like $70K and the other is like one and a half million. But the strongest objective advantage the Maybach has is simple exclusivity; There are a lot of Toyotas on the road; a lot of the value in the Maybach is in the process... and the process that makes it rare.
Objectively, I would easily argue that the Maybach is worse. It's going to be vastly less reliable than that Lexus. and certainly, for telling time, your $10 drug store watch is vastly superior to your hand-built analog wrist-art piece.
And if you want to get fancy, even the cheapest cellphones these days come with time synced from GPS satellites. (GPS is fucking amazing. One of those things where the more you learn about how it works, the more amazed you will be that it works ever at all.)
So... yeah, I'm not saying there isn't value in having a hand-built art-piece; sometimes, there's a whole lot of value. And if you've got that much money, why do you really care what time it is, anyhow? But I am saying that you're going to have to search pretty hard to find an example where the hand-built example is objectively better at fulfilling it's ostensible purpose (e.g. transporting people and telling time) than something mass-produced by machines.
I think the distinction your looking for is "crafted" vs "manufactured". What is interesting is that the linage of these devices include lots of "craft".
There's still a luxury brand that hand-builds cell phones: Vertu, out of England. Though obviously the components are still made by machine (chips, etc).
They're pretty, in a way. But are they the finest examples of a cellphone? That was the question I was replying to. Are they actually better than an iPhone, or my HTC?
The website is nice but the phones are 10x the price of an iPhone and 30 times the price of a Moto-G 3rd gen.
That said it's nothing to do with the spec of the phone and everything to do with the look of the phone, everyone in their set knows that the phone costs 7 grand, they know that you know that they know etc.
I don't know much about watch culture (I have a $10 Casio) but I heard someone say that a $1,000 watch is expensive, but a $30,000 watch is an investment. Not sure if people really pay attention to watches but Google "investing in a watch" and there's plenty of articles about it.
I have a weird feeling watch collecting/repairing will increase in popularity in the near future? Along with an increase in prices? These brands I mention below, except Orvis, can be bought on eBay for under a hundred dollars. Most of the time they just need a service, or a new stem?
Names like Benrus, Elgin, Orvis, Oris, Hellbros, and a buch of ETA movements, with obscure names, are great watches, and one day just might become more collectable than they are presently?
These mechanical watches were worn by the working man. They all had great movements. I repair watches, and I can't tell the difference in quality between Rolex movements and most Benrus Movements on the older models.
Once you have a basic set of tools, and a little bit of knowledge on these old watches; you really start to see the beauty/value of old mechanical watches. With me--it started out as a hobby, to maybe a career? In the near future I am coding two websites devoted to watchmaking. One will be just about watch repair, and watch information. The other will be my personal business website where I will sell and service watches. I wish I got interested in Horology when I was younger? The bug didn't hit me until 10 years ago, when I got my first IWC cal. 89 watch. The guy who sold it thought it was a Timex. He sold it to me for $5.00. Well I got it cleaned, and oiled, and has been on my wrist ever since. It's so old the letters on the dial are completely faded, so it doesn't even look like an expensive watch. I wear it in the worst parts of town. I am the only one who knows it's a extremely well designed/machined piece of watchmaking history.
So yes, I think vintage watches will go up in value. I hope not for awhile--because right now I can still get good deals on EBay. I just got a Omega Seamaster for a little over $100 dollars. When I get it running it will make a great watch for someone? A watch that will never be thrown away? A watch that can be handed down to a loved one?
vintage watches, and hand-made hats, will go up in value simply because there are more people with more money than they can find things to spend it on. It's called Asset Price Inflation.
There is a huge divide between a $10 and a $1000 watch. One is a simple Quartz battery-run watch. But when you start talking about mechanical and automatic watches, your looking at incredibly intricate micro-scale engineering. (You may be able to say the same thing about intricately weaved hats, but I wouldn't know.)
You can get a decent mechanical watch below $500, but you're almost definitely looking at a Seiko.
I wouldn't bet on a watch as an investment, but if you spend $3,500 on a good quality Omega Speedmaster or $35,000 on a (low end) Philippe Patek, it's a solid bet it will retain its value over time. I wouldn't bet on it increasing in value better than a Vanguard index fund, but...
Source: I love researching watches and clocks (especially centuries-old clocks) and find mechanical movements to be engineering works of art. I don't personally own that $3500 Omega Speedmaster... Yet...
If you get really amazing micro-scale engineering, you can get a watch that is almost as accurate as a quartz watch, for a hell of a lot more money. At least with the hat, it is qualitatively better.
Root comment mentions smoother, lighter, more flexible. Lighter certainly seems like a desirable quality, I'm not wearing a hat to work out my neck muscles.
Smoother, lighter, and more flexible than a less dear Panama
hat. The bucket is almost certainly lighter than both, if you're
looking to relieve your neck from its tremendous burden.
ljw1001 was comparing watches by their ostensive purposes,
telling time, but the hats by something else.
Exactly, better than other panama hats for the purpose for which it is used. And I wasn't as KC8ZKF states, comparing hats by one standard and watches by another. You can make a quartz watch that looks and feels exactly like a fine mechanical watch (excluding those that expose the insides, of course) AND is more accurate. You can't make a cheap panama hat that looks and feels exactly like a finely made panama hat because the craft is directly exposed.
You can get a decent self-winding mechanical watch for $150 from Swatch.
Beyond that, mechanical watches are like art or classic cars - you can "invest" in them, but they are more status symbol and one-upmanship than investment...
I got a decent self-winding mechanical watch for about $30 from Seiko. Granted, I bought it used, but you really don't have to spend much at all unless you're really into watches.
A finer weave makes them a lot smoother, lighter, and more flexible, which is useful in really hot and humid climates. The guy in the shop said that the daily progress for such a hat is adding about a centimeter to the hat each day.