The hobby, if you can call it that now, has for many become all about ostentation...the age of look-at-me Instagram posts. The age of maximum appreciation of the most noticeable watches.
This hobby used to be totally under the radar--something I loved about it...only a fellow enthusiast would appreciate a watch one's wearing (save mostly for Rolex, which was always very visible since the late 70s or 80s, but not to today's extreme extent).. It was, for me, a very private passion.
Now many of the so-called watch lovers seem like mere lovers of ostentatious displays of wealth, rather than actual watch lovers.
This was made worse by a complicit industry (hard to blame them as watch companies are out to make money) focused very much on marketing and ever-increasing prices, even when for many brands, after-market prices made clear that MSRPs were far too high.
I'm not sure if watches are the new bitcoin, but it sure isn't what it used to be...
Cheers,
John