The real luxury is the one that money can’t buy.
I would like to suggest other names than the so called “holy trinity” (Patek, Audemars Piguet & Vacheron Constantin), because after all they are mass-producing high-end watches. Patek is estimated to make North of 50,000 watches per year, Audemars has an estimated 20,000 and Vacheron 18,000.
Philippe Dufour works almost entirely by hand or hand operated machines, and in 37 years of career he has produced less than 500 watches. Judging from his Web 1.0 website you can se that he couldn’t care less about Google ranking:
Roger W. Smith apprenticed with the late George Daniels and also makes watches by hand, to the tune of 10 to 12 per year.
Thomas Prescher tinkers a little more with computer controlled machines, but his yearly production is also in the range of 10 per year.
Looking at the amount of employees of the holy trinity (811, 200 and 571), Patek, Audemars and Vacheron respectively have a ratio of 61, 100 and 32 watches per employee per year, and not all their employees are watchmakers. Compared to the dozen watch per year of independent watchmakers, this clearly shows that the holy trinity produces on an “industrial” scale.
Philippe Dufour, Roger W. Smith and Thomas Prescher are watchmakers that money can’t buy, which would make their products ultra-luxury. They are in for the love of the craft… clearly not for the money.
I recommend visiting the website of the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants, of which Messr. Dufour and Presher are members.