The Excess We Need?

In collecting watches I often find myself looking at water resistant specifications of diving watches and comparing 100M water resistance to 300M.  For anybody who has bought a sports car, it is the same comparison of 385 horsepower to 400.  For running shoes, the Nike 4% Vaporfly presumably deliver greater performance than a 3%… if that were a thing.  In reality, most of us will never be able to push the limits of our devices as they were built to do.  Does this mean we should dismiss these largely aspirational limits from our consideration or do they serve a greater purpose in our minds? 

This is of course an individual decision around what will make you happy as a collector, aficionado or participant in an activity.  Is more than we need the definition of luxury, of excess, of lack of self-control?  Are we simply suckers for great marketing is the hunt the hunt part of the experience?

Whatever your view, there is little chance you haven’t compared product features that you didn’t really need but ended up purchasing based on a subtle differentiation that resulted in greater satisfaction in the process or ownership experience.