Re: Switzerland still has plenty of other industries...
"Also, luxury watches need to be serviced periodically which is extremely expensive (and labor intensive)."
I read a very interesting book by Paul Fussell called "Class" which dissects the way status symbols work in the US although most of his points apply to any stratified society, i.e. any society that has ever existed. He mentions that service being expensive (because labor intensive) is actually a benefit from the status-symbol point of view. Because the watch (or other status symbol) is both expensive to obtain and to maintain - it is more difficult for the lower classes to overreach themselves. Okay, you've bought that 40 foot wooden-hulled sailboat - let's see if you afford the marina fees, the cost of sails, the upkeep for that wooden hull, or if it's going to bleed you dry.
At any rate, I kind of doubt that anyone with real money considers Apple to produce high-status goods as any good produced in the millions or tens of millions is, by their definition, pretty plebeian. So from their point of view, nothing says "low-brow" like thinking Apple is "high-brow".
But the plebes and the proles are impressed - bless their stupid and pointy little heads.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
