Friday, May 15, 2015

Professional Left Podcast #284

ProfessionalLeft


“Study the past, if you would divine the future.”
-- Confucius


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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are aware the apple watch costs less than an iphone right? You can get an apple watch for 400 bucks... 400 bucks is cheaper than many digital watches such as higher end gshocks and suntos, it's a low price range. I used a Casio GSHOCK FROGMAN while in the Navy, it's a plastic/resin that costs $700 (and is practically immortal).

Now if you move up into the 500-1000 range of watches, they are still cheap. A good steel swiss watch from a respectable brand such as Tag, Sinn, or Omega can be had for about 1000-3000 bucks or higher. A high end steel watch from a company like Rolex, Breitling, IWC, or Glashutte can go from 5000-9000. Generally anything worth owning in steel is about 3000+ if it retains any value, well over the apple watch. Hell professional grade steel Seikos are a few grand as well. (A Grand Seiko Prospex Marine Master or Omega Seamaster Professional are both going to hit you for about 3,500, a Rolex Submariner is 5-9k most of the time depending on version).

And if you go for the gold apple watch for 10000-15000, again still cheap. A good gold watch from a higher end brand like Rolex or Grand Seiko can easily hit 40000 or higher. A top end gold watch from someone like Patek Philipe can easily be about 200,000 bucks. Watches like this are pure status symbols and for dress occasions.

I'm not saying that an iwatch isn't a luxury, it is. However it's priced under it's competition at every price point, laughably so in most cases. The problem isn't the cost, the problem is that it will retain no value at all. Unlike traditional digital, automatic, mecahical, or quartz watches it's not something that can be kept around for decades while being just as functional and valuable as when you bought it. It's a pain in the ass that requires charging and will become outdated fast. It's a cheaply priced product that doesn't last, not exactly an upper class product.

Personally I wouldn't spend more than four figures of my own money for a watch. But I'd rather to do it once and never have to replace it. But the fact of the matter is that if I go to Pentagon City Mall, the watches in the apple store are vastly cheaper than the watches in the watch.

dinthebeast said...

I once bought a digital watch from Walgreens for three bucks, yup $3.00, that lasted me four years, and only died because I was wearing it at work and physically destroyed it.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

@dinthebeast

And I can buy an $10.00 pair of sunglasses at CVS, this does not change the fact that good sunglasses are usually in the 100-300 buck range.

The issue isn't that you can get a cheaper watch than an iwatch. I can get cheaper food than McDonalds. It's that the iwatch is under priced in just about every price point compared to quality products there, and also potentially cheaper than the iphone.

Hinting that it's expensive, or more expensive than even an iphone6, is dishonest. The iwatch is cheaper than a quality digital, quartz, automatic, or mechanical watch at each price point, often less than half.

It's a flashy product, but a cheap product.

dinthebeast said...

My point was that cheap is a relative concept, and quality is dependent on intended function. The price point of an iwatch is irrelevant to someone who can't afford it, and any of those four digit watches you described would have disintegrated just as fast or faster than my $3.00 Walgreens watch.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Eh? Planet Oceans and Submariners were originally issued to military diving commandos. They're meant to take a beating, they last decades being abused. Other 4 figure watches survive in outer space.

The GSHOCKs can be thrown off buildings, stomped on, set on fire, they've survived people getting blown out of hummers.

So no, none of those would fall apart as fast or even faster than a 3.00 buck watch.

You're just very wrong here on the facts and pulling a Morning Squint.

dinthebeast said...

How can you say that when you don't know what happened to it? It was run over by a forklift on a smooth concrete floor, ferchrissakes. I'm not calling you names, or assaulting your character, just trying to point out that while expensive accoutrements have their place, that place is not everywhere, and sometimes less expensive tools are actually better suited to the application. You can't call me wrong on the facts when you don't actually know them. So please don't compare me to that asshole, OK?

-Doug in Oakland

Sorry for this exchange, Driftglass, you don't have to publish this and I'll stop now.

Chan Kobun said...

Geese.

As a guy who's working for below-poverty wages and living fairly close to the ragged edge of disaster, yet doesn't consider himself poor because he's able to buy the things he wants alongside the things he needs, I wish to say something in the most official capacity I can muster as the aforementioned "poor" guy:

GO FUCK YOURSELF, YOU RICH ELITIST PRICK.