Acquired on Rolex

At present I'm listening to the Acquired podcast on the history of Rolex. There is some interesting stuff in there, no doubt. Particularly about the early history of the Swiss watch industry and how Rolex built brand recognition.

But this episode goes on for five hours and much of it is just Ben and Dave gushing about watches and how this or that model is so "iconic." I have also listened to their episodes about Hermes and also LVMH and there are good lessons in all of them, but man is there a lot of flakey bullshit. More than anything listehing to grown men get all gooey about how cool these luxury products are makes me delighted to come from a university town -- and one that is not Cambridge or Palo Alto, I might add. It makes me love the Prii that we bought used, and this LG laptop here that got a good dependability rating from Consumer Reports and all the nice shirts and jackets I've picked up at thrift shops down through the years. Fuck all that luxury bullshit. It's just another way to keep you shackled to your desk.

I will add that I do appreciate the enthusiasm Ben and David bring to the research but it makes me suspect that so much of the enthusiasm derives from the intoxicating power of money. I really need to find podcasts that show similar enthusiasm for public rather than private goods.

I'm pretty sure I had a Rolex for a while in the early 80s when my dad was into watches. I'm really not sure whatever happened to it and I don't really care.