In haute horology, collectors don't flinch at six-figure timepieces

New York

TIME has never been more ubiquitous and in your face. It's on the phone, the computer, the car and every blasted appliance. "You don't need a watch to tell the time," confesses timepiece connoisseur Watch Anish at a midtown Manhattan cocktail party celebrating luxury watches. (Real name: Anish Bhatt, but as an Instagram brand, he's so beyond that.) You hear this observation plenty in the haute horology world, even from people selling six-figure timepieces. Also, that a Timex tells pretty good time.

But facts matter not a second hand to obsessive collectors, almost all of whom are male, in a market where US$15,000 models are deemed "middle-class" timepieces.