Bill Gates' $70 Watch Costs Double in Spain

Bill Gates' Watch: $70 in the US, €140 in Spain

Seventy dollars. That's what the Casio Marlin Duro MDV 106, the timepiece Bill Gates wears on his wrist, costs in the United States. The paradox isn't the price, but what it costs to get it outside America: the same model sells for $150 in other markets and for €140 in a jewelry store in Almería. Globalization, that wonderful thing.

The starting point is an explicit consumer choice: spend just enough on something that tells time and lasts. Curiously, the chosen item isn't cheap because it's bad, but cheap because it's Casio. And behind this choice lies an industrial story that almost no one knows.

Brutal Quality at Insignificant Prices

The F-91W —F-84 in Japan— is the world's best-selling watch and, according to those who have used it for decades, practically indestructible despite not being shock-resistant. It costs less than a dinner. The Marlin Duro, with its little fish on the dial, is the analog version of the same principle: steel case, 200 meters of water resistance, and a silicone strap that, after trying alternatives, almost everyone puts back on.

Therein lies the collector's trap: since they aren't expensive, people indulge themselves. Some admit to accumulating 23 watches and only wearing two or three. The rest are for looking at.

Is a Solar Watch Worth It in the Age of the Smartwatch?

The answer isn't obvious. Radio-controlled solar models synchronize every night and last for years without a battery change; a mid-range model, the Casio Lineage LCW-M600D, was bought second-hand in Japan for €60 when it retails for around €300. Others have paid €140 for the Marlin. And facing them are smartwatches: those who defend them cite Bluetooth alerts, sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and a flashlight to avoid tripping in the dark hallway at home, with batteries that now last between half a month and three months.

The fight, in reality, wasn't about technology, but about status. A $20 watch at Walmart, one person said, "makes you immune to certain assailants." Another confessed to wearing an F-91W for thirty years without suspecting that others looked at him strangely. Too bad you can't go back thirty years knowing what I know now, he wrote.

The Fish That Wasn't a Marlin

Here comes the curiosity that justifies half the hobby. When Casio wanted to launch its water-resistant line in the United States, it commissioned a logo redesign. The designer delivered… a sailfish, not a marlin. But "Marlin" sounds better than "Sailfish" and was easier to pronounce, so the error stuck, repeated on millions of dials. The fish on the watch isn't the fish in the name. And everyone's happy.

From €60 to €400,000: The Luxury That Doesn't Even Keep Time

At the other extreme, Bulgari launched the Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC, the world's flattest mechanical watch, for about €400,000. It has a problem: it cannot be wound or set. Marketing, someone said, gets us to spend on what we don't need, but the trick is making it "interesting."

Mechanical perpetual calendars, with month and moon phase complications, exceed $200,000. And at a Sotheby's auction, pieces are sold as art. In contrast, a selection of ten watches under €100 can be bought entirely for just over €700.

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How much of this hobby is a passion for mechanics, and how much is the need for someone, somewhere, to turn and look at our wrist?