The watch industry is full of hype and marketing, I suppose any high value low volume top end luxury market always is, you have to investigate & make your own mind up if you are happy to pay for such items for what they are worth to you. Lets face it everything RM does is top quality, but you pay a price. Richard himself is obviously extremely well off so his timepieces have large profit margins.
I am a multiple owner, and I love the watches,in my view the 10/11 I like but the real value is in the 002/004. I see these as possibly longterm being sort after many years after I am long gone, I think the more specialist top end RM stuff is longterm good value, the 5/10/11/28 nice timepieces but not particularly collectable.
I also struggle with pieces such as the 27, 500k for a watch...now I know yes its cutting edge, but lets face it when they are only making a run of 30 which I think ot extended to 50, alot of the cost is in the Research & development & tooling etc, and I struggle to see the 27 holding good value longterm.
So I suppose without rattling on in answer to your question, yes there is hype, haute horology needs it & thrives on it, but yes there has to be a fantastic product to be able to sustain the brand in such a market, RM no doubt has the product at many differant levels, and indeed hats off to the man for what he has achieved so far, quite remarkable really