Rolex used to produce tough hard as nails diver watches that were the favourite of the military. Now the Rolex Submariner is more of a fashion watch. While used by some divers a Seiko SKX009 will do just as fine a job for less then £300 rather then £10k.
My Omas fountain pen now retails at many times what I originally paid, and Montblanc Meisterstuck 149 is now close to £700. A simple quality pen but now a ‘Life Style’ Brand.
Leica with their limited editions are also now more of a life style brand then a camera company with their many limited editions. The S medium format camera and the SL are what many people would still consider ‘real’ cameras but the rest over priced, though I would disagree about the M10 which I also consider a real camera.
Today Leica announced a couple of watches. I suppose this makes Leica’s transition to a life style company complete in many eyes, but Leica is a small company and it does what it needs to bring in money to fund the cameras it really wants to build.