bloomberg | Don’t worry, this isn't going to be a class-warfare rant or a
treatise on living the simpler, less materialistic life. Rather, it is a
suggestion to some folks that perhaps they might want to make some of
their conspicuous consumption a little less conspicuous.
For example, I learned last week that Tiffany & Co. had a secret room
for the big spenders. That's because when you're dropping $20 million
on a necklace that, according to Tiffany's vice president, is being
bought with literally a wheelbarrow full of cash, you want some, you
know, privacy.
Or how about those folks who want to learn how to drive a $500,000 car
very, very fast and they need to take a specific class? It's tough luck
if you don’t have a Lamborghini Aventador Roadster yet, because they
are sold out. So is the new $1.4 million Ferrari LaFerrari. You can
still buy a Bentley GT or a Ferrari California T -- assuming you don’t
mind hearing the derisive snickers of the parking valets behind your
back.
The condo in the peak of the Woolworth building
is going for $110 million. That isn't the building, just one apartment.
That’s a relative bargain, compared with the Hamptons estate that just
was purchased for $147 million dollars.
But
it wasn’t a car or a diamond necklace or a house that made me realize
that perhaps the ultra rich have become a bit tone deaf; it was a watch
-- or a “timepiece,” as the brochure describes them. In an advertisement
in last week’s New York Times, I saw a picture of the Greubel Forsey
GF05. As the picture showed, it’s a busy little number in platinum and
black. A quick Google search revealed a selling price of $549,000.
I
half expected to see a tagline that read “For when you need to tell the
time, but you just can't do it without spending the equivalent of 36
years of minimum wage salary.” A timepiece that costs almost triple the
U.S.'s median existing-home price ($201,700) does seem a tad pricey to us peasants.
