Some might think that “My family has money: we have a big house, nice cars, and my mom owns a horse.”
This is what I call “Rolex rich.” Oftentimes it’s not these folks whom I’m discussing.
I’m many times talking about what I call “Patek rich.” You might be wondering, What’s the difference?
A Rolex Submariner is a scuba-style watch. They’re beautiful (in my opinion) and superbly designed. They cost about $43,000 brand new.
A Patek Philippe, you can get in on the ground floor for about $20,000. The Calatrava is an entry-level Patek, and they run about that much. Those are not the Pateks I’m talking about. I’m talking about the ones that go for $200,000 to $400,000. Pateks can easily hit $500,000. They at times reach into the millions. You could get a drawer full of Submariners for those.
The Patek crowd would wipe their feet on the Rolex crowd. Well, maybe not, they probably would not want the soles of their Ferragamos touching the Rolex set. Yuck.
The Patek crowd don’t live in a big house; they own three of them. And they don’t own a horse; they have twelve of them and are looking for two more.
Allow me to illustrate: My father has always been a BMW guy. I don’t care and neither should you. So, when I was probably 14 or so, we were at the BMW dealership, which at the time was BMW-Porsche. So, we were there, I do not recall why. And this fella walks into the showroom and he looks lost. The sales reps said, “Can we help you?” He replies, “Yeah, where is the Ferrari dealership? I think I’m turned around.” They gave him directions and he replied appreciatively, “Thanks!” He then headed for the door. The sales reps then anxiously said, “Sir?! Can we interest you in a Porsche??” He turned around, looked at them, smiled politely, but ever-so condescendingly, and answered, “No thanks.” And then exited. The sales reps had a field day with that one.
When I was 14, I found this hilarious and I still do. It was as if the BMW-Porsche guys offered the man a dirty diaper.
That is what I am talking about. “A Porsche? I’m not driving that trash. Are you joking??” These are distinct groups. There is rich and there is RICH, in all caps.
The latter do not look kindly upon the former. And the latter have Washington’s full attention. You do not. (No offense, if there’s a Patek on your wrist and a G5 in the hangar.)
