Horological Meandering

ripwatch
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Marvelous post, Nick, and lots to think about...

whether the manufacturers "give a stuff" or not!

You're right, I think, that the term "luxury" is a very tricky one to define.  After all, I know there have been times when a nice warm bath on a cold night has seemed to me to be the height of luxury, but certainly that's something attainable by anyone with a bathtub and a hot water heater!  And there have been plenty of times when, after my Mercedes has wound up in the shop yet again, the simple fact that I don't have to worry when I turn the key of my Honda has seemed quite a luxury, too.  The luxury, in other words, of being able to take something for granted.

I suppose we're in the same neighborhood of the famous comment a Supreme Court justice made about pornography:  I can't define it but I know it when I see it.  And that, of course, takes us very far indeed into the realm of subjectivity.

To me, for example, it's basically axiomatic that a Mercedes Benz is a luxury car and a Honda is not.  I say that partly because it's certainly true from my perspective, and I imagine also from the perspective of the vast, vast majority of the car-buying universe.  But I do have to stop and step back for a moment, and put myself in the postion of a person who has bought a new Bentley with cash every year for the past 30 years, and has a couple of Ferraris to play with at the track on weekends.  To this person, a Mercedes probably doesn't seem like a luxury item; it probably feels like a step or two down into the mundane.

But I wonder if that's okay, the exception that proves the rule, so to speak.  In other words, maybe if it's luxury to the vast majority, then the tastes of the ultra-upper crust shouldn't change the consensus view.

Thanks for your thoughts!

-Rip