Hype in Horology

I agree there is a lot of hype - and not just with the aforementioned brands. YouTube has become one big infomercial. It's tedious trying to find content that is educational or the work of an enthusiast. So much is clearly paid advertising - whether it's large brands or microbrands. I understand that these dealers need to prime the pump because they are sitting on so much product.

I prefer to wander my own paths whether they be vintage or modern - mega brand or microbrand.

I won't pay a premium above list for any watch - there are so many choices - I'll just move on to another brand/reference.

My two cents for what it's worth...

I would agree 100% with you that I don't like the hype surrounding certain brands and certain models - but, mostly only because it means I can't then buy the watch I want at the price I want.  I would happily pay the $19,900 MSRP for a VC Overseas (not really, but just saying it for argument's sake).  But, don't think the watch is worth anywhere near the $50k price that folks seem to be asking.

As for "the marketing tricks" of the grey market dealers, I have a somewhat idiosyncratic and unpopular take:

•  Grey market dealers tend to be individuals selling their stuff on Chrono24.  Individuals almost NEVER have any market setting power whatsoever.  The market is simply too large for any individual to have any power whatsoever.  In economics jargon, grey market dealers are "price takers," not "price setters"
•  According to conventional wisdom, corporations manipulate us into buying whatever they decide to sell us.  We're victims!  We're helpless in the face of their advertising onslaughts!  We're poor sheep who are easily fooled and tricked into buying S*&^ that we don't want, buried under crass consumer goods that we don't need!  Only issue is that the empirical data simply do not bear this out.  
•  If corporations were able to sway demand as easily and powerfully as the popular imagination would have it, then Cats would have been the highest grossing movie of all time!  Taylor Swift!  Dame Judy Dench!  The studio spent $115M on global promotions and advertisements for the film.  And, it turned out to be one of the biggest flops for the studio, costing it over $100M in theatrical losses
• Another example:  What proportion of the population uses wet toilet paper to wipe their bums?  Roughly 5% of Americans did, on a weekly basis, in 2020.  When Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble first launched wet toilet paper, they spent untold millions on R&D, marketing, advertising, commercials that showed how soothing the wet toilet paper would be on your anus the moment you used it to wipe...  Massive losses for these gigantic global consumer packaged goods companies!

The dirty little secret in the world of marketing is that marketing professionals have very, very little ability to sway people's behavior.  In fact, the only real value marketing professional bring to the table is identifying existing latent demand, and then surfacing that information for executives to then try to launch a product to meet that demand.  In other words, "People already want X.  So, let's give them X."

The same could be said for all these hyped watch brands and models.  They're hyped, not because any given company is able to hype them.  They're hyped, because consumers want them.

For me ‘hype’ does exactly the opposite of what its supposed to do; it turns me off a watch/brand. Especially in social media where they love to crowbar the word ”Rolex” into a post just for views/likes/algorithm purposes. If they want to perpetuate the ‘hype’ and increase demand/prices that’s fine but I’ll take my interest and money to somewhere else. There’s waaaaay to many other watches/brands that will hold my interest more. It makes no difference to me personally, if I make or lose money from a watch - I don’t apply that to any of my other hobbies, why would I start with watches? I don’t wish for this to sound negative, just how my own personal opinion and how I approach watches

Agree on you. 

For the gray market dealers, I think they become a network at the back end. We can't buy at the AD but while we look into the shops in HK, you can take whatever you want if you pay for the price. There may be a lot of networks behind them which we can't know.

And another aspect is that, rich people tend to make investment on watches even they know nothing about them. That trend make these worse. It was obvious over last two to three years. 

Finally they are hype as somebody want to make them hype to get benefits upon these. This hobby has become a playground for investors. Buying watch with brain win over buying watch with hearts. That's pity.