Watch mechanics are fascinating. If only software was developed with such care and accuracy..
'Luxury Software' hasn't become a thing (beyond ludicrously priced free-to-play whalebait)
Some people surely buy them for the status symbol aspect, and those are definitely the ones we notice because their watches are big and tacky.
There are far more mechanical watches who don't wear brazen Rolex-esque "look at me" watches. You may not notice us because we're wearing Seikos, Citizens, Timexes, etc.
Ironically the accuracy and ubiquity of mobile phone based timekeeping has made mechanical watches more practical. You don't need your wristwatch to be hyperaccurate if you're carrying a phone.
when a $10 digital watch does the job of timekeeping just as well
I'm sure you own some articles of clothing that were chosen despite the existence of cheaper alternatives that are functionally equivalent for your use cases.
And yet, arguably, that's exactly what most app store subscriptions are, priced at several multiples of what that lightweight utility would have cost to purchase before the subscription model.
And there's bespoke software, that can be almost arbitrarily ludicrous in terms of cost. I'm talking about eg corporate in-house software that has whole teams developing it, but only a few users.
But I guess these examples are mostly just very expensive, but you don't use this software to brag to your mates.