What is luxury? - Tudor, Omega, Rolex

a couple of weeks ago during my moonswatch video i made the comment that i didn't think omega was a luxury watch brand i also added that that's part of a bigger debate that's a debate that i'd like to have today this is what i classed as luxury for this video i thought i'd wear my omega seamaster 300 on a soon to be released bark and jack native strap but there's a lot that i want to talk about in this video there's a lot of areas that i feel need detailed discussions and i really want to share my point because it's it's not a point that i kind of want to start arguments with it's points that i truly believe and as someone who has got hands-on with some of the cheapest watches in production and someone who's got hands-on with some of the most expensive watches in production today and so these viewpoints aren't just flippant points to annoy people this video is sponsored by bezel it's a brand new app that helps you shop for luxury watches but i'll tell you about them later on i'm going to segment this video because there's a few detailed thoughts i want to share with you so i'm going to start off with talking about a bit of background a bit of context then explore the actual definition of luxury and then applying that that definition to watch brands themselves in the video where i mentioned that omega isn't a luxury brand despite the fact they sell expensive watches i think that the main annoyance was around how tone death that can sound as or how tone deaf that came across i'd like to address it and by doing so tell you a bit about my background and where i've come from because i appreciate how some random guy on the internet saying that a 7000 pound watch isn't luxury just makes me sound like some privileged pleb so back in 2008 i had i was running my first business it was a music production business 2008 happened recession global recession and it screwed me royally i lost everything in that and i became really broke and properly broke to the point of not being able to eat i couldn't afford food because i paid rent and my ego and pride wouldn't allow me to not pay rent just so that i could eat long story short i had to close everything shut everything down moved home reset my whole life even still today i don't often buy starbucks but even still today if i go to starbucks even wearing a 4 000 watch i still feel like a boss that still feels like a luxury to me that is a luxury purchase because there's something about starbucks that triggers an emotion in me because it's something that i couldn't afford that i wanted to afford but couldn't afford back in 2008 i'd meet my friends at starbucks but i wouldn't be able to drink i'd be the one drinking the free water at the side of the the cafe and it it still triggers me today that emotion of being able to buy a starbucks i think you can all agree that starbucks isn't a luxury and i think that's the challenge is there's a difference between what is a luxury purchase and what is a luxury product and that's essentially the the premise of this video let's look at what actually is luxury or the dictionary definition of luxury a state of great comfort or elegance especially involving great expense an inessential desirable item which is expensive or difficult to obtain so the definition is quite clear with very obvious elements that describe what luxury is but the reality of that the actual meaning of it is vague as hell what i class is essential you my class is inessential comparatively essential and inner central is one of the easiest categories to think of for example a dress watch we could class as an inessential item whereas a tool watch we could class as an essential item the more challenging one is desirability and expensive you only have to go to the comments section of any watch review to see that we don't agree on what is desirable and what isn't desirable expensive is the most challenging part of this at what point is a watch expensive is a 4 000 pound watch an expensive watch is a 3 000 pound watch an expensive watch how about a 250 pound watch i think all of these are expensive watches i think anything really over 100 pounds is expensive if you're in the position to spend 100 pounds on an item that you don't need don't truly need because we all have phones now then i think you're in a decent position in life if i think back to me in 2008 i wouldn't have been able to buy a hundred pound watch if i did buy a hundred pound watch that would have been a luxury purchase but i think we can all agree that it wouldn't have been a luxury watch so when we're talking about buying an item it's clear that whether that purchase is a luxury purchase or not is individual is so individual that there isn't one unanimous viewpoint around that and so my feeling is there's a difference between a luxury purchase and a luxury product a non-luxury product can be a luxury purchase me back in 2008 buying i don't know 100 pound watch 100 citizen let's say that would have been a luxury purchase of a non-luxury product the reverse of that exists as well we see this all the time with a luxury product being a non-luxury purchase if you think about someone buying a patek philippe nautilus so 5711 they buy it keep it in that little funny plastic bag and then put it in a safe without doubt that is a luxury product but i don't feel the purchase the the overall experience of that product is luxury for me it's it's the equivalent of booking a room at the savoy and not going in the room you've purchased the luxury but you're not enjoying the luxuries the way that i see luxury within the watch world i see it as brand and heritage uh finishing and build quality and price and availability and this is pretty much in line with the dictionary definition of what luxury actually is now you need a good balance of all of these elements you can't just launch a watch and give it a hefty price tag because no one's going to buy it there isn't going to be any demands that's why you need the branding the branding creates the hype creates a demand but you can't just have a brand that says we are luxury we don't stand for that we we don't accept that there needs to be substance behind that you need to have the build quality and the finishing of the product to back up the price to back up the branding and this is exactly where the disconnect happens with brands like tudor um with with bremond with hublot with tudor they are a premium product they call themselves premium they are priced premium and their premium build quality yet they operate like a luxury brand because we can't just walk into a shop and pick up a black bay pro on a bracelet the chronographs that they have these aren't hard to build products there's a wait list they're a premium brand but they operate like a luxury brand in a different way you have bremon they have luxury branding they have luxury price tag but the products doesn't back up the branding doesn't back up the price tag so there's a bit of disconnect there exactly the same with hublot luxury branding luxury price tag the build quality and finishing lacks a finesse for it to back up the pricing and the branding rolex suffers from this disconnect as well because of how some of these elements play out in reality it distorts our vision and people value these elements in different ways and so it becomes very contentious whether rolex is a luxury brand or not we will look deeper into that in just a second i want to zoom out a bit because before i start talking about which watch brands are classed as luxury or how i see different watch friends there are a couple of caveats that i want to add here this is just my opinion and it honestly doesn't matter if something is luxury or not it has no bearing on the quality of the product my omega seamaster it doesn't matter what someone class this watch as factually this watch is absolutely superb the movement in here the caliber 8800 the accuracy the robustness of this movement is mind-blowingly good without any unnecessary hype i truly believe that this movement is the best mass-produced movement on the market but that doesn't make it a luxury product and nor does it not be luxury take anything away from how brilliant it is another caveat is i do struggle to see tools as luxury if something is truly built for a purpose then immediately by sheer definition it is essential for that purpose therefore it isn't luxury now that becomes distorted because some brands like the branding or the category of certain things of tools of of sports and so they create a faux version of that in a luxury setting if you think about the rolls-royce cullinan without doubt a luxury suv and put that up against a toyota uh land cruiser one is a luxury product that has been styled to serve a purpose the other one can actually serve the purpose in watch world let's let's pick on the the northless again the 5711 and put that against an aqua terror one has been built to look like a sports watch the other one is a sports watch the last point i want to make before we move on is that i've categorized brands for what they represent or what they're known for for example ginger culture they are known for their reverso they also build some insanely complex watches like the gyro tourbillon that they create there's a four hundred thousand pound watch but that isn't what they're known for and their icon is the reverso just like with omega omega can build some very complex watches but they are known for the sea master and the speed master rolex are known for the submariner and the daytona that's their thing and so that's how i've categorized the watches let's take a few seconds to talk about the sponsor of this video bezel bezel is a brand new app that helps you shop for luxury watches and currently only available in the us they have in-house watch experts to authenticate every single transaction so you can shop with confidence the app is modern and easy to use both for buying and selling watches they also have experts on hand to help you along your watch journey the best thing is as a viewer of this channel you get a discount 250 off your first purchase just type in discount code bark jack 250 or one word all lower case when you check out and that will give you 250 off your first purchase if you're in the us check out bezel wherever you get your apps from or check out getbezel.com i've created a hierarchy of luxury and i think we should build downwards from the top i think we should categorize what is the pinnacle of luxury what is top tier luxury the pinnacle of luxury should be something unique something exquisite something that is undeniably special undeniably expensive and genuinely rare something that is refined to the point of being obsessive like roger smith or a grooble fawzi or a philippe du4 i'm not going to go through and name every single watchmaker or every single brand i've just chosen three for every single category we'd be here for days if we tried to cover everyone the next section down from here i have two categories and i've separated them into mainstream luxury i'm going to carry on with the pretentious wording and call this connoisseur's luxury so mainstream luxury we have the holy trinity we have patek fleet we have audemars piguet and vacheron constantine these three watchmakers are absolutely phenomenal but i feel like there's one element that either increases luxury or decreases the luxury depending on your preference patek fleet and audemars piguet are household names vacheron constantan perhaps not so much but it's coming up into the folders becoming a household name a lot of people even beyond watch enthusiasts no patek philippe and no audemars piguet now that can either increase the luxury value because people recognize what you have as being something nice equally for those who like to be under the radar this can decrease the level of luxury and so that's why i kind of feel there should be an adjacent section to this the connoisseurs luxury within this i have fp journal a language zone and h moser now within watch enthusiast circles a lot of people could say well hang on these are mainstream i don't believe these brands are as mainstream as patek fleet for example erlang and zone very well known hmos all three of these are very well known within watch enthusiasts but outside of those circles i don't believe these brands are anywhere near as known as the mainstream luxury the next section is the contentious section and this is what i want to class as luxury now naturally this is a hierarchy so this is in effect entry level luxury but i don't want that entry level to devalue anything this stuff is special the first brand i have in here is jesus i have these guys here because of their brand their heritage their history the design of their products is without doubt as jesus they have their own designs their own products they don't jump on hype they do their own thing regardless of fashion equally their product has a level of finishing a level of finesse to both the design and the finishing that i feel is much superior to other watch brands within the same price range there's a special something about digital culture that feels without doubt a luxury product exactly the same goes for cartier again these guys have their own design these guys have their own products they don't jump on hype and they have again a level of finesse to their product they have the whole package the final brand that i have with an entry level luxury is rolex but there's a big butt there's a massive butt within this rolex for me their icons right now are the submariner and the daytona the gmt these are tool watches going back to my point earlier around tools not being luxury this kind of distorts that thing but for one single reason the sheer popularity the sheer desire of these products has elevated their status beyond what the actual product is there's no way this is a luxury product for me there is nothing beyond that crown on the dial that says this watch is luxury relics rolex's popularity is its strength it's what elevates the brand but it's also its biggest threats if you were to remove the popularity and we could walk into an a.d and buy a daytona as easy as we could buy a speedmaster pro rolex would be a premium brand with a luxury element exactly like omega omega icy as a premium brand with a luxury element the main bread and butter of omega sea master aqua terrace speedmasters planet oceans they're all tools i see them all as premium products the desirability simply isn't there to elevate the brand in the same way as rolex however there are some stunning pieces from omega which scream luxury i got hands on with the all gold speedmaster that is without question a luxury product the finishing and finesse on that is equal to that of jlc other brands that we have within the premium section arguably below omega but we have breitling brighton has a super herb heritage their branding i think is absolutely stunning but the product isn't a luxury product the product is very much premium the same goes for tudor but tudor is very very different from many other premium brands because they have this big brother of rolex pushing them down i feel like tudor purposely do funny things with their watches the proportions are always ever so slightly off not to the point of me disliking them but to the point of me thinking you could have made that better i'd like to add a couple of closing points here when you buy something buy something because you want it and you like it not because of what you think it says about you or what you think it's going to make you feel a watch on your wrist isn't going to make you feel differently you might enjoy the experience of wearing the watch but it's not going to change anything about you the final thing is it doesn't matter what you have on your wrist or what other people have on their wrists it says nothing about us it doesn't put us in any particular position you could have a nineteen thousand pound all gold jesus culture on your wrist but be paying it off every month because you've got it on four years finance equally you could see someone wearing a 200 pound fossil smart watch and not know that they're worth 1.3 billion and be the ceo of google guys i'd love to know your thoughts on this what won the positioning my positioning of luxury brands but also the the separation do you agree that there's a separation between a luxury purchase and a luxury brand if you like this video hit that thumbs up button if you like the style of this video hit the subscribe button down there and that little bell icon so you get notifications when i drop a new video if you want to check out what straps and watch accessories i know we're out of stock and a lot of things we're going to have a big drop very very soon but if you want to check out what straps from roche accessories jump over to barkanjak.com if you're on 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Channel: Adrian Barker

Views: 342,022

Keywords: bark and jack, rolex, is rolex luxury, barkandjack, omega, is omega luxury watch, tudor vs rolex, tudor vs omega, is rolex worth the money, best luxury watches for men, best luxury watches 2022, rolex vs omega, why is rolex so expensive, best luxury watches for women, best luxury watch for the money, best luxury sports watch, omega review, is rolex worth it, why is rolex expensive, seiko, watch review, how much is rolex watch, best luxury watch, Best luxury watch brands

Id: WEhKPfS-t04

Length: 16min 51sec (1011 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 02 2022