What is your Idea of Luxury in the 21st Century?

We all know what we mean when we talk about luxury. But, at the same time, we all have different opinions about what luxury really is, and this difference in opinion is even more evident in the present day. On the one hand, we have those who embrace the old-school concept of luxury and believe that more expensive means more luxurious and hence, better. On the other hand, we have the bold people who understand luxury as a lifestyle and consider items that fit into this category to be luxurious regardless of their price tags. Such is the case of every global citizen who wears the future on their left wrist in the shape of a Seventh watch. Read on and find out which side of the discussion suits your way of thinking.

The Old Concept of Luxury

Let´s start from the beginning and shed some light on a concept that has been around for a really long time: What is luxury? The dictionary definition is, “A state of great comfort or elegance, especially when involving great expense.” Also, some of the synonyms of the word include opulence, sumptuousness, richness, costliness, grandeur, grandness,and magnificence.

Luxury Watches 

When it comes to deciding on the luxury factor in watches, we can divide them into two specific groups that are very different:

• The Collector´s Items –The value of these watches is completely out of proportion to the market and is mostly set by a niche of people who know everything there is to know about timepieces. In addition to that, for a watch to be a collectible item, it doesn´t have to endure the vicissitudes of life hanging from a wrist, unless it was worn by the likes of Alain Delon or maybe Sean Connery while playing James Bond. These watches are designed and manufactured to be the top-notch products in the market and end up being the most expensive of a collection that sits behind display glass.
  
  
• The User-Watches– These kinds of watches are those that people wear for every-day living or sometimes for special occasions. Mostly, their price is defined by the market and is usually dependent on the construction materials and the cost of manufacture. For example, a sky-high price tag on a Rolex made by the finest craftsmen in the world with solid gold and diamond engravings is considered legitimate since that is exactly what you are paying for.

Other than these two age-old categories, the juxtaposition of user and collector leads to a third category comprising of the watches that provide a certain status to the owner thereby elevating the price tag. One of the best examples to explain this phenomenon is, for example, the concept of fashion trends. When an item becomes fashionable, then the price tag no longer reflects production costs or materials, but rather it becomes dependent on the market demand. Once the demand rises due to the product turning into a fashion trend, the next step by the company is to raise the price.

Wooden Watches

This is a newly-added category that has arrived on the market to challenge all that has gone before. Handcrafted wooden watches by emerging but flawless brands such as Seventh have come to defy our definition and concepts of luxury. But what is the determining difference between wooden watches and all other kinds? They are products that cannot be judged within the same parameters as other watches. The category which they belong to has not properly been identified as a collector´s piece (which doesn´t mean it won’t in time) and it is not priced as a status item like most luxury watches are nowadays. Wooden watches are one of the very few categories in the world where the price tag actually resembles the manufacturing cost of the item.

The Wooden Revolution

There is a lot more to the wooden-watch revolution than meets the eye and this has to do with the materials and the concepts behind each timepiece. Let´s take, as an example, the wooden watches that Seventh manufactures and see how these factors play out in determining their worth both monetarily and as a luxury item:

• Wooden watches are made from eco-wood – The wood that is used in the production of Seventh watches comes from forests that were designed and planted with the specific aim of extracting the wood for industrial uses. This is actually a huge selling point since it means that no traditional forests or ancient trees were destroyed to provide you with these luxury timepieces. Responsible lumbering is a commitment to a better world that also, instead of increasing the price of the artifact, lowers it, because of the legitimate and sustainable way that the source wood is produced.
  
  
• Wooden watches are hand-crafted – The wooden watches that Seventh sells are hand-made by experienced artisans. This is an inherent quality of the item, and it is not only the Seventh company works this way, many other companies employ artisans who carefully craft the wood to perfection for each piece they create. This is something that is not at all common in the production of regular metal watches because the metal is a material that requires really high temperatures to be molded and so most companies go for a laser cutting process rather than using artisans.
  
  
• Wooden watches are ecologically friendly –The eco-friendly wood that comes from controlled, man-made forests has far less impact on the environment than extracting metal out of underground mines. Generally, the procedure of separating metal from stone involves the use of acids such as sulfuric acid. The damage that sulfuric acid can cause to an ecosystem, especially a water-based one, is sometimes irreparable. In this regard, classic metal watches are worse for our environment than the wooden watches crafted by companies such as Seventh.
  
  
• Wooden watches are a trendy novelty – Stepping into a room with a wooden watch on your wrist makes a statement about who you are, and besides being utterly trendy, they are also a novelty. Chances are that you will get asked more than once every time you wear it if it really is a wooden watch and all the other questions associated with it. This might be a great attraction for some people, but something not so good for others who prefer a lower profile. For the latter, it is important to understand that they are part of a new movement and that by wearing these quality timepieces they are showing the world a better path for the future.

Luxury Doesn´t Have a Price Tag

Starting out with the classic notion of what luxury used to be and arriving at what luxury is now in the 21^st Century took us on a long journey. Some people are ready to walk that path and others are not. But what is undeniable is that the appearance of premium quality wooden watches in the world shifted the paradigm of what a luxurious item looks like.

Wooden Watches Defy the Price Tag

Usually, for an item that is such a novelty and part of the fashion bandwagon, the price tag should sit well above the four and five-digit range. Moreover, the more people who buy them, the higher the price goes – this is the general rule. However, this is not the case with wooden watches, especially those made by Seventh, asyou can get them for well below the four-digit mark. Some of the models available on the market really stand out and can help you make a luxurious, beautiful, and eco-friendly statement about yourself.

Wooden Watches Defy the Construction Cost

Since the wood used for their construction comes from eco-forests, the extraction costs are very low compared to those of extracting metal from the earth. Also, the craftsmanship of the watches greatly reduces expenses because there are no high-temperature melting and molding processes involved in making the timepieces. All these steps reduce the cost of the end product and make it a more realistic proposition for the 21^st Century marketplace.

Wooden Watches are the Future

Because they are reliable, affordable and eco-friendly, it becomes rather an easy conclusion to draw that the watches of the future may well all be made out of wood because of the ethical sourcing of the construction material. The general mindset of the various manufacturing industries of today is warming towards the development of eco-friendly products which, in turn, plays a major role in bringing wooden watches into the limelight of modern and luxurious fashion items.

Conclusion

For a single item to defy so many categories contributing to the concept globally known as ‘Luxury’ is astounding. The wooden watches revolution is just the tip of the iceberg with a principle that defies those established categories that are often taken for granted on a daily basis. The future has arrived; are you a part of the change, or are you a part of the past? The answer to that question might very well be on your wrist.