I suppose these watches are not for us, mortals, men born out of a woman. Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos are humans too and need to feel some kick when they buy things. Relative to Buffet's net worth spanned over 100 years, this watch is like a $25 one for me.
Prestige, perceived future value IE investment. It's no different than investing in art. Watches do very well at auctions when art is doing well.
Also the aversion to cognitive dissonance is sufficient that a person who reliably projects high social status will be viewed as competent and high-performing in any place. If you've got such a watch, the implication is that you must be worth something.
Interesting his Porche only brought $4.4 MM. http://www.thedrive.com/a-list/5058/adam-carolla-buys-paul-newmans-porsche-935-for-4-4-million
If you create a firing culture you lose the two ends of the distribution, the low end you wanted to lose and the high end you were hoping to nurture. You are left with middle of profile people who cannot easily get hired away. The low end jumps ship ahead of the axe, the high profile knows they are not at risk but watch themselves jump ship - without maybe really knowing why - actually consciously or subconsciously they don't like the "culling"culture even though they know they are not at risk.