I wrote about wristwatches a few months ago and have loved watching the Wristwatch Revival channel with Marshall showing me a lot about what’s going on inside mechanical watches.
His latest video features a Rolex GMT Master II, and it’s a beautiful watch. But what I like about the video is that he tells us some things about Rolex that most people may not know. He also goes into his process a bit as a hobbyist, which might come in handy for me someday if I ever take it up.
But the way he’s talking, I’m thinking that maybe Rolex isn’t that impressive. So I look. And sure enough. On a website that categorizes wristwatch makers, Rolex is only considered a “Luxury” watch. Sounds cool to me. But there are two whole categories above that on this site — “High-End Luxury” and “Ultra Luxury.”
And I’m thinking, “no way,” but there are a lot of makers in those categories. So I pick one randomly — Jacob and Co., which is actually a US company, and I see why. Jacob and Co. is in the “Ultra” category, and they’ve made a watch that lists for $1,015,000. Yes. That’s one-million, fifteen-thousand dollars.
It’s utterly jaw-dropping.