[Ted Grant]

That’s exactly right. Rolex is the working man’s luxury watch. Rolex’s roots are in crafting excellent tool watches (which really peaked with the five digit references) and they really do a great job of it.

For me, the distinction is that a Rolex (particularly five digit references) makes watches that are also beautiful pieces of jewelry, while other higher end watches (Cartier, for example) are beautiful jewelry that are also watches.

Many of the modern six digit references are awesome, but they started drifting a bit more towards jewelry/watches and strayed a bit from watches/jewelry.

But indeed, they’re not high end luxury watches. For me, they hit the beautiful tool watch “sweet spot,” and I also like that it remains one of the most unambiguously masculine brands out there (in an era of increasing androgyny).

[zeugma]

Agreed for the most part. Personally, I lean more towards Omegas, though if I travelled more I'd have a Rolex for just the contingency I mentioned previously. I wish I were in the market for one of the nicer Patek Phillipes, but you can't touch those without a lot more disposable income than I'm ever likely to have. I really love some of their perpetual calendar movements, but they are very proud of them.