During our weekly run, Marco glanced at the watch on my wrist and asked a question that was at once practical and quietly philosophical. He leads one of the top-performing teams at a major Italian bank and was looking for a way to reward them. Not with a bonus, not with a weekend away, but with a watch. “Something not extravagant,” he said, “but something that might gain value over time.”
It is an unusual way to frame recognition. Not as consumption, but as capital. Not merely as a gesture, but as a position. And it invites a deeper question: what are we truly buying when we buy a watch?
A watch is never just an object. It is a tool, certainly — a diver such as the Seiko Prospex engineered for endurance and pressure, built to perform without complaint. It can also be design in its purest expression, as seen in the restrained geometry of the Nomos Tangente, a study in proportion and discipline. Or it can be the modern all-rounder, like the Tissot PRX Powermatic 80, equally credible under a tailored cuff or paired with a T-shirt on a quiet Sunday afternoon.
Yet when appreciation enters the conversation, the discussion shifts. We move from taste to strategy. Most watches under €2,000 will not behave like a Rolex Daytona. They are not speculative trophies or auction darlings destined to double overnight. And that is perfectly fine. Buying a watch purely as an investment risks turning something deeply personal into something transactional. Markets cycle, hype fades, and demand recalibrates. But the possibility of brand momentum — of cultural significance compounding over time — inevitably sharpens the eye.
Still, the more compelling argument for a watch as a reward lies elsewhere. Cash is immediate, visible, and easily absorbed into the noise of daily life. A watch, by contrast, is quiet. Discreet luxury communicates leadership in a way that spectacle never can. In much of European corporate culture — and increasingly elsewhere — understatement signals confidence. Flash suggests insecurity. A well-chosen watch worn without fanfare implies earned authority and long-term thinking.
To gift a watch is to acknowledge that time itself has weight. It says that contribution matters, that discipline compounds, that growth is recognised. Even if the watch never appreciates financially, its symbolism endures. It ages alongside its owner, collecting small scratches and milestones, promotions and late nights, turning metal into memory.
When I answered Marco, I told him this: study the market, understand the brands, but ultimately choose the watch you believe in. The true return is not measured in percentage points. It is measured in years worn and moments marked.
Cash is spent. A watch stays. And time, if used wisely, compounds.
— Gus Scriffignano
European Editor, RAW TIME