So what is luxury and what does it mean to you?

Used Cars is a movie classic. Of course, TGV knows it. I have really come to appreciate his videos and perspective.

Luxury is what I don't have. If I have it, it is not luxury. I am at peace with that.

I don't even know what Luxury is anymore! 

That's not luxury, that's hideous and the price of a house 😂 

Just on appearance if I saw this on one of Invicta's  Blow Out! Sales for 29.99 I would be offended. I realize it's a well made watch but it just shows what people are willing to spend just to spend.

You know, I've come full circle on TGV.  At first, I found his content compelling. And then holier than thou. And then, perhaps as I have grown older...just a little more right than not.

Luxury is something I can lose without grieving.  If my retirement savings, the kids college funds, the house were lost, I'd mourn them.  Not the least because I put people I love in a worse place even temporarily.

If I lost my priciest watch....my life is genuinely no worse for not having it.  It's just a line in an insurance form.  I'd happily wear a Seiko 5 until it was replaced (or even if it wasn't).

This is a silly hobby.  Its important to remember it.

Great movie and one I'll have to re-watch, such a good laugh 💯

TVG's video, for me reiterated what my perspective of luxury already is. For some it's a status symbol and or an investment. A lot of collectors, not all of course, buy into all the marketing hype and will always chase and want the latest and greatest new thing, cars, phones ect and of course watches. This is where I think collecting vintage watches like yourself and others here on WC is a great thing, you're preserving a piece of horological history while still using a watch for it's intended purpose, a bit of jewellery on your wrist that tells the time, if your not looking at your phone that is.

I have in the past, fallen into the whole hype thing and only recently purchased the Sinn 556 blue watch, but I did buy it to wear and not to make money as some have, I want to enjoy and use it, then eventually hand it down to one of my boys.

I'm in the same camp as yourself, definitely not a luxury guy. Luxury to me is not having any bills and enough money for a drink or two 😉

Exactly. This is a hobby and nothing more and like yourself, so long as my life and my families lives are in order and I can still afford to indulge myself now and then, I'll continue to collect. 

If I lost my collection, while I would be upset I wouldn't be devastated, these things can be replaced, my peace of mind can't. 

A status symbol and nothing more. You could house, feed and clothe a entire African village for a year or two for that sort of cash. Absolutely ludicrous when you think about it. 

But also luxury. 

To me, luxury goods are things you don't need in your life, aka all watches 😂

The fact that you bought a 50$ Casio instead of a few meals or grocery already makes you think.

To me, luxury is a hard thing to define in away that encompasses everyone. 

3 watch collection; a concept most of us here basically scoff at with our collecting actions? Luxury to a large percentage of the world's population, maybe even a majority. 

Owning an Omega Speedmaster Moonshine? I'd consider that a luxury watch, but would Jeff Bezos or other ultra-wealthy individuals?

It's all relative to your circumstances, IMO

lux·u·ry - the state of great comfort and extravagant living

"From 'lechery' to 'something that is expensive and not necessary' We associate luxury with comfort, quality, wealth, and aspiration. But it wasn't always that way: the word originally meant lechery and lust in English."

Ah! Now the meaning becomes clear - what others "lust" after, but only a few can have...that is the meaning of luxury.

I think Solomon said it so well, "Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes."

Are there watches you "lust" after? Do some consume your thoughts? Are you so enamored with a brand that you feel possessive about it...so much so that you have to declare your allegiance and feel the need to defend it from all criticism? Do you want others to be green with envy when they see your wrist? Then maybe you own a "luxury" watch...or it owns you.

I have not forgotten the many hours I spent as a teenager starting at 3:30 am to get the kettle and the ovens up to temperature, so that I could begin the morning bake at 4:00 am and be finished by 6 am so I could head to high school. Then coming back after classes and doing the afternoon/evening bake for our commercial orders. Hundreds and hundreds of bagels everyday...kettle at 220 degrees and the oven at 450 degrees...and Saturday and Sunday mornings at 5:00 am making the dough and running it through the machine to make the perfect bagel shape...timing the rising of the dough to get it just right before rolling the carts into the freezer. 200lbs of flour, 100lbs of water, 6lbs of sugar, 1lb of salt, and half a bar of yeast - that was the recipe for the dough.

I haven't forgotten how hard that work was...the physical labor. My brain does all the work now and I have to go to the gym to stay fit. I never cared about "luxury" when I was young and I still don't care about it.

All I care about is whether something moves me...beautiful music, my beautiful wife, the beautiful singing voice of my daughter, and some attractive watches and guitars.

They can keep their luxury, their advertising, and their effort to instill inadequacy that can only be filled by acquiring some branded goods.

Mens sana in corpore sano

Man your going to have to buy that Omega and stop drooling on you're keyboard, otherwise it's going to taunt you for the rest of your life 🤣

I couldn't agree more with your statement mate 🤝

Some people lust after material objects, cars, houses and simple items like watches, their consumed by greed in a sense, I've never been one of those. Like yourself I started working at a very young age, delivering milk, paper runs which had me out of bed in the very wee hours before school, then working at my father's shop on weekends, plus all the jobs I had to complete around the house. So at that age luxury to me was being able to buy a milk shake and some fish n chips on my day off to share with my mates, that's when life was much more simple and dare I say, more enjoyable.

Now approaching my 60's and for many years leading up to this point in my life I get my enjoyment from things like playing guitar with my oldest son, teaching both my boys how to work on a car. Sitting around the fire-pit in the yard and listening to the greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and so on, these are the things I lust after now, beautiful memories, not a Rolex or other so called luxury watches or materialistic items.

I'm not so easily coerced into believing I need or must have this watch or that car. Like it was pointed out, it's all just a cunning marketing ploy for the gullible weak minded to make them feel inadequate about themselves and feel that they must have this or that to show that they have made it in this world.

I may not be wealthy and have fancy cars and live on Sydney Harbour in a mansion, what I do have is a beautiful family, loads of great memories, and that's something money just can't buy 💯

To me luxuary is things you already been discussing. Things you normally don’t consider as such until everything change. Me, my family and friends. True luxuary is all of us beeing well. 
Everything spent on material things is just…spending. Either on necessary, or unnecessary things. Watches is a unneccerary thing I spend money on that gives me great pleasure. But if anything bad happens to me or my closest I will be reminded of that I already had luxuary and the watches are just joyful distractions. 
 

Any watch in 2022 is excess. Or maybe the line is drawn when it's something more than a tool? Or is it when we start reaching beyond resonable quality and dependebility? 

Is it even a relevant question? Most of us live a life of luxury in a historic or world wide perspective. 

In the eye of the beholder for sure. 

There was a time that for me luxury was a hot steaming shower, 6 hours of continuous sleep and eating a meals where the rain would not drench me. 

Luxury is more or less a marketing term, essentially making something an aspirational good by labeling it as such.

Watch advertising is very blatant in this regard, as TGV correctly pointed out in his video.

I always find these discussions interesting, and amusing. 

Pretty much every single person alive, in a society that is developed beyond a hunter-gatherer level lives a life of "luxury" to some extent or another when you reduce the definition down to the most absurd/extreme level. 

I forget who posted this here the first time I saw a discussion about luxury, but it is 100% bang on. 

(6) The Four Yorkshiremen Sketch - YouTube

That out of the way, a more useful definition of luxury likely starts around $1-2K USD. It's expensive enough that most average working people in could buy it, but it would require sacrificing something else to do, making it "difficult" to acquire. The level of difficulty changes based on income, but for most people spending $1-2K USD is beyond the impulse buy level. 

Edit: I'm halfway through the TGV video, what a pompous "holier than thou" ______. Essentially, "I'm a real enthusiast, everybody else is a shill"... 

I suppose we are all supposed to forget that he shilled for WatchBox, and bought that fancy gold Rolex from them, while working for them. 

Edit 2: Oh God... he pulled out the Fortis he got from Fortis while shilling for them... 

In the Immortal words of Teddy Baldassarre. "You gotta Budget for Food!"

I think luxury to me is having ‘disposable income’ beyond my basic needs in todays world (which is mortgage/bills/food/car etc). 
what you use that disposable income for is the luxury in your life. Be it travelling, entertainment, shopping or pursuing hobbies such as watch collecting. 

To me luxury can go both ways. Its could be comfort, sophisticated and superior. On the negative side can be snobbish, stuck up, and selfish. And the worst part you can loose it all in a snap of a finger.