When most people think about a luxury watch maybe a very snazzy $50,000 Rolex or Omega comes to mind. There are also watches covered in gold and diamond that sell for $200,000 or more. But for an even higher level of refined taste in wearable fashion there are names such as Richard Mille, Greubel Forsey, and Roger Dubuis. These brands have watches that can cost over a million dollars U.S. each.
Watch making isn’t just about sitting around all day making faces 😀 It’s also serious business 😉
The watch maker Roger Dubuis is located in Geneva, Switzerland (of quartz it is 😀 ) And it’s behind the Excalibur Quatuor, (right) which costs $1,100,000 😯
This luxury watch represents the pinnacle of modern science and innovation. The Roger Dubuis Excalibur Quatuor is the product of more than 5 years of research, development, and testing.
Expensive watches made by other watchmakers usually have only one sprung balance, but the Excalibur Quatuor has four that all work in tandem for unprecedented calibration accuracy 🙂
The Excalibur Quatuor watch is made from nearly 600 distinct parts (left), including 5 differentials, and it has a 40-hour power reserve function that is patented by the Roger Dubuis. All of this analogue technology is housed in a silicon body that is four times stronger than steel, yet weighs much less.
The entire process of putting the watch together from start to finish takes about 2,400 hours. Since each watch sells for $1.1 million, this means the company is getting paid $458 per hour of work, not too shabby 🙂
Moral of the story: Watch makers make a very decent living 🙂 And they get to make their own hours 😀
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Random Useless Fact:
From the edge of space Vancouver and Seattle doesn’t look very far apart. And Bellingham looks like it’s just an extension of Vancouver (click image to enlarge)
Do you know how many of these watches have actually sold? Only the mega rich can buy these pricey time pieces. I don’t think Warren Buffet is one of their customers haha.p
Interesting point. I’m not sure how many they’ve sold but I think they only made about 200 of these or less. I think it’s one of those high margin but low volume business models. I will stick with my $100 Swatch for now lol. Although I’m planning to get the Moto 360 when it comes out in Canada 🙂
But is the watch waterproof? 😉
As a side note, I would recommend holding off on the Moto360 until the second generation watches come out. That watch in particular has been known to have relatively poor battery life and uses a processor from a chipmaker that pulled out of the mobile business 2 years ago (TI), and with the speed of technological advances in the wearable and mobile industry, you don’t want to be stuck with an outdated chip. Plus it has that irritating black bar on the bottom, making it not truly a round watch.
It’s water resistant 3 bar, so it should be suitable for everyday use. Accidental splashes or wearing it in the rain and snow is okay, but I wouldn’t take a shower or go swimming with it on. Thanks for the feedback about the Moto 360. I think I’ll wait for the LG G watch R like you suggested on Twitter 🙂
No problem. Just ask me anything Android related. Although I’m still using a Galaxy S3, I’m pretty up-to-date on current Android news 🙂
Wow that’s a serious watch! I’m quite happy with my Seiko watch, I’ve been wearing it for over 12 years now.
I like the Seiko brand as well 🙂 They sound really durable and long lasting. To be frank I don’t really have a good eye for watches. If you showed me a $500 watch and a $5,000 watch I probably couldn’t tell which one is better, lol.