Watches

You're correct, case finishing doesn't change much. The case construction does change quite a bit though, and applying the finish can take a lot more effort.

The closer you get to 5k the more value a 2k watch has in comparison. Once you go above 5k the watches get Craaazyy.

Sure, some amount of money is just the brand name. Let's put that aside.

There is definitely a difference in quality between a $2000 watch and a $6000 watch. However, that $4000 difference is going to be far less than the difference between a $200 watch and a $2000 watch.

When goods start to be manufactured at a higher standard of quality, the costs begin to increase exponentially. You see this in every sector from watches to computers, guns, cars, trucks, furniture, clothing, etc. The skill, talent, labor, and investment to get a good from 1 to 90 is going to be a fraction of the same to get that good from 90 to 100.

And of course, as the standard of quality increases, the more experience and knowledge is required on the consumer end to appreciate it.

My brother in law bought a Rolex Daytona a few months back. I think he paid around $15k. It’s a very nice watch. I tried it on. I definitely felt and saw the quality of it regardless of the Rolex name recognition and expectations.

That being said, I wouldn’t spend the money on it. I know Rolex’s heritage, craftsmanship, etc. If I had the choice between given that or a Moonwatch, and I couldn’t sell either one, I’d take the Moonwatch any day.

And I don’t know what it is, but with very few exceptions I think the higher end to the highest end watches are ugly. I saw more than my fair share of them in stores and in the wild while living in Westchester County, NY and Greenwich, CT.

This is how everything is. The difference between the average basketball player in the world and a top 10% basketball player will be that neither can make a living getting paid to play. The difference between a top 0.1% player and a top 0.01% player is millions of dollars. It’s called diminishing returns.

There's tons of intricate finishing above 2-3k, some excellent craftmanship can appear fairly simple if we think machines did it en masse rather than the haute horology brands that do them by hand. The most obvious examples for dials would be enamelling and guioche - techniques so fancy I can't spell either. But they can take a master craftsman dozens or 100+ hours for a single piece.
You mentioned Grand Seikos movement but their zaratsu polishing shows enormous attention to detail and really makes the metal shine.
Then you can get even higher up there where the movement specifically is hand-crafted with some decisions purely being aesthetics over function.
I'm wearing my Christopher Ward #Tide now, it's a very fine, thousand dollar watch. But when I got home, I took off the SBGA435 I was wearing today, now that's about a $9k watch. I look at that 100 times a day when I wear it and usually forget to even check the time. This I just have on because wearing a watch has come to feel more natural than not wearing one. Truly night and day.

I own and admire watches at prices ranges from $1k to $100k and there is a distinct difference in quality and finish as the price goes up. That is not to say that $1k watches are low quality, or that the more expensive watch is always “better”, but there is no doubt about a difference. IMO some brands and models deliver consistent value above their price point, some are arguably overpriced on a quality basis, but definitely there are still many level of distinction above $2k - $3k. Material and method alone drive some of that. Gold & platinum cases, enamel dials, hand turned guilloche that very few manufacturers can do, highly engineered complications, movement finishing…these are real differences.

Everyone's describing the effect without having named it yet: "Diminishing returns"