A Swiss watchmaker has put on display one of the most expensive watches in the world – worth five million dollars.
The white gold timepiece is encrusted with 1,282 diamonds, and will be shown to a small number of people at a corporate event in Basel.
It was created by Swiss firm Hublot and took 17 people 14 months to make, according to the AFP news agency.
A “mastersetter” from New York had to be flown in to fashion the largest diamonds, the watchmaker said.
Analysts say despite the economic downturn in Europe Swiss watchmakers have done well this year, driven by demand in Asia.
“We profit off the general growth of the economy in the region,” Jean-Daniel Pasche, president of the Swiss Watch Industry, told AFP.
Source: BBC, March 7
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Last October, the Bain tenth-annual, luxury goods, worldwide market study found:
1. Affluent clients in the developed world continue to spend heavily on luxury goods. This phenomenon is more than a bounce back to pre-financial crisis levels. It’s a genuine upsurge in demand, despite a slowdown in overall GDP expansion in these markets.
2. Chinese customers continue their buying binge, both at home and as tourists abroad.
Eric Koch’s new book, The Golden Years: Five Stories, was launched on Saturday, March 16. The book is available from the 
But does the white gold timepiece keep the right time?
I will pass on you qustion to Monsieur Hublot.
Thorstein Veblen invented the phrase “conspicuous consumption” at the end of the 19th century. We shouldn’t be surprised that the practice has returned. All the devices developed in the 20th century to control the excesses of capitalism – anti-trust legislation, strong trade unions, has been swept aside by globalization. The new capitalism has few rules and no enforcement. Its crimes against humanity have only just begun.