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I look at complications and high-end finishing like guitar players in the 1980s. They studied how to play fast like Yngwie Malmsteen, they imitated the computer-like sounds innovated by Van Halen (finger tapping, power tools, etc), and they over distorted their amps so that they all sounded the same. What it all produced was Steve Vai. An incredibly gifted technician on the guitar whose ability to play obscure scales fast was unmatched. Yet, whose music sounded soulless and boring (See the audience is listening).
Contrast Steve Vai with John Frusciante, as an example. Frusciante has enough chops to be professionally technical, but his technical ability is not on Vais level. Yet his ability to create melodies and harmonies that are simply articulated (see By The Way album) are one of the reasons that make the Red Hot Chili Peppers a HOF band. Same with Slash and Buckethead. Does anyone think buckethead made Guns n Roses sound better than Slash because he was more technically talented? No! Slash shoved his Les Paul straight into your heart and made it sing Sweet Child as loud as you could in your car on a road trip.
To me watches are the same. When I see a beautifully finished or a wonderfully complicated watch with poor attention to design detail, I appreciate the craftsmanship, but I feel emotionally dead.
Greubel Forsey is a great example. Those watches have the most impressive complications and some of the best finishings in the market. A connoisseurs dream… but their watches are a display of technical prowess (like a window of all the stuff they did to make it complicated) with little thought of how to make the watch aesthetically beautiful. Contrast that with a Rexhepi or a Laurent Ferrier (for example) who emphasize aesthetic beauty without feeling insecure that they need to throw every complication they’ve done on the canvas in random order, like some Jackson Pollock painting.
The Lange Odd is another great example of A level finishing/technical ability, with a soulless design. From a technical view and from a finishing view those watches are so impressive… Patek level to be sure. From an aesthetic point of view, however, it looks like a chunky LEGO block project, awkwardly constructed by a 3 year old. Hideous. Contrast it with a nautilus… and the aesthetic qualities are galaxies apart.
Before you GF or Lange Odd guys and gals get your feelings hurt because you love those watches, note that aesthetics are highly subjective. This is only my personal take. I appreciate if you think an Odd looks nice (though I will never understand it) and you’d prefer it to all the other nicer looking sports watches out there.
My point is that while watches like GF and Akriva or Patek and Lange may be on equal footing when it comes to finishing and complications, etc., and perhaps even a little more technically proficient, decisions on which ones to buy are based on how the aesthetics affect me emotionally… not because one has more power reserve than the other. In the same way that I listen Slash GnR and press skip when buckethead come on.
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