Luxury isn’t about quality anymore…it’s about branding.
Before you get started, yes it always has been to some degree, but look no further than 90’s Rolex prices, adjust for inflation and wage stagnation… and you’ll eventually arrive to the same conclusion.
I’ve got a double of Monkey Shoulder and some pesky instagram clips to edit on the Mac, both leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. In all fairness, I had this tone when dictating this during the morning shave.
Twenty ago, high-end goods were built to last. A luxury watch was something you passed down, designer clothes were made from premium materials, and audio brands prioritized sound quality above all else. Today? You’re paying more for the name, not the product.
This year’s Watches + Wonders was a marked disappointment. Very little innovation and worst there was nothing produced that made me think “time 2 buy again”
Heritage brands are meant to play on the name and decades of expertise, I get that. But that doesn’t mean to continue to simply change a dial color and call that innovation. Where are the new materials, handsets, movements (Rolex did okay in this regard)
Nowhere is this more obvious than in modern fashion trends. Streetwear brands slap a logo on a cheaply made hoodie, screen-printed onto the same blanks used by budget retailers, and charge hundreds—sometimes thousands—of pounds. You’re not paying for craftsmanship or materials. You’re paying for a typeface or a boxy cut. Often, it’s not even a unique cut or take. You’re paying for the established players, entry. The same goes for “luxury” sneakers—glued-together leather, mass-produced in the same factories as mid-tier offerings, yet priced as if they were hand-stitched by artisans in Italy.
But there is no more egregious offender than tech. The top audio brands once obsessed over perfect sound reproduction. Reference Audio. Now? They push Bluetooth instead of high-fidelity wired connections, all while charging more. USB-C offers superior quality, but that would mean admitting that wireless just isn’t as good. Instead, they strip out headphone jacks, introduce dongles, and convince customers that convenience is a worthy trade-off for quality. And it is, just not in my audiophile level cans.
High-end vehicles have followed suit, allowing the flailing tech guys in the cabin to jack up the price of new cars. Cost justification ? New safety features that make the car insistent on beeping at me for everything… most egregiously when I spank a boy racer on the way to Cardiff. Touchscreens have replaced precision-engineered buttons with premium materials, damped hinges and knurling. Plastic grinding has replaced the feeling of tactility in ratcheting metal. Software updates have replaced mechanical reliability. And yet, the price tags keep climbing.
Real luxury still exists—but only in the brands that refuse to cut corners. The rest? They sell hype, not heritage. There’s much to discuss with where luxury products are made, the current Chinese luxury manufacturing scandal and more. Stay tuned.