"I am considering a rebelde. However I saw this post in an online forum, it
was brief and read: 'Who is going to pay $14K for a gold rebelde?'. Please
reassure me that rebelde is a good investment. A.K."
Dear A K,
I found this advert on Craigslist the other day:
"My kid is having a birthday coming up soon, and there'll be a lot of
children around, so I figured I'd better get a pony. If you have a pony to
sell, please contact me, and then immediately start putting barbeque sauce
in it's bedding or add some Lawry's to it's salt lick - I like to marinade
it early and long, so that the flavour is at it's peak by the time I take
possession."
The first point I want to make is this: online forums are fun places to
visit, especially if you have time to kill, sitting at the airport lounge or
while your boss is having a day off and you are left unsupervised with a
tonne of important work to do but you just can't pull yourself together.
However most of the stuff you find online falls into 3 categories: fantasy
and wishful thinking, unsolicited advice or plain nonsense.
No one in their right mind would go online to get medical or investment
advice, because the online world is *not* the real world, but mere shadow
and mirage of it.
The second point is this: our opinion about the world is based on our own
vantage point. Today, I arrived to work on public transport, but some of my
subscribers and rebelde comrades arrived in Porsches. Others were driven to
work. Many didn't even go to work because they no longer have to work.
A few of them will fly large commercial aircraft today because this is what
they do for a living. And one thing you can be sure of is this: the world
looks completely different from the back seat of the E69 bus than from the
cockpit of a Boeing 747.
We are all different. What seems like a hell of a lot of money for you or
me, is loose change for someone else. Terms like "expensive" or "cheap" have
completely different meanings to different people. Would you pay $600,000
for a chess set? Or $250 for a hamburger? $35 million for a 1962 Ferrari?
The PrestigeHD Supreme Rose Edition TV sells for $2,7 million dollars.
Pollock's painting No 5. sold for $140 million in 2006. when it changed
hands between two collectors. Today, it would be worth significantly more.
This is the REAL world: real people CREATING real things, selling to real
buyers who have REAL money to afford them.
To answer your question: $13,980 for an 18K gold rebelde is really not that
much when you take in to account a/the mere gold-content value;
b/exclusivity; c/compare it with any other gold watch out there available
for under $14K. I am not mentioning the story behind it, or anything else
which is bit more complex to attach value to.
Asking is a rebelde a good investment is same as asking is any watch a good
investment? The answer is: we don't know. Some watches do increase in value over the
time, others don't. But people who buy 18K gold Rolex or Cartier or IWC or rebelde don't buy
them for investment purposes. They buy them simply because they want them. I
wish there was a more rational explanation to this phenomenon, but there
isn't.
What makes rebelde much different from Rolex, IWC, Cartier and really any
other luxury brand, is the fact that each gold rebelde is made to order.
That is, unlike all other brands, I don't have a stockpile of watches
sitting in a safe, waiting to be sold. You won't find a glossy advert for
rebelde. The rebelde project is self-sustaining and we owe money to no one,
so I don't need to assemble and sell 500, 50 or even 5. Rebelde 18K gold can
not be bought on credit card because I would never exchange REAL gold for a
piece of plastic. It can not be traded for another brand - I would not take
a Rolex or Panerai for rebelde. This is something you may find difficult to
accept or understand, but that's how it is. One day when I'm gone, things
may be different, but as long as I am making them with my own hands, this is
how it's going to be.
If you are going to pay any attention to what people think of you, or what
they think of your product then you will end up with a very functional but
very boring and very commercial product. The drip series of paintings established Pollock as a leading figure of new
American painting. Pollock was an iconoclast and a rebel, which got him a
reputation that made him infamous. His techniques and methods were radical.
This in turn was great publicity for his work.
Project 'rebelde gold' is not conceived to please the masses -and
particularly not the hordes of anonymous online forum users- but to excite a
handful of true supporters. The only thing on my mind is how to make rebelde
more water resistant, how to improve my polishing technique, how to get rid
of dust particles which are impossible to get rid of, how to drill more
perfect holes, cut finer thread, to invest in better assembly tools and
equipment, where to find skilled craftsman who share the same ideas as
myself, where to find better leather for straps, source more Swiss
mechanisms - and then, to find time to design more dials, hands, cases,
re-commence work on rebelde chrono, complete Titanium series. And these are
just the top priorities on my 'to do' list. Unfortunately there is simply no
time to care about other people's opinions or to convince anyone about
anything. Those who have nothing to do will always find plenty of time to
waste.
The work station set up.
Precision assembly.
Putting the final polish on the cases.
Washed up.
