The Supercomplication breaks records every time it goes on sale, most recently in 2014 for $24.4 million. Clock nerds salivate over its every rod and spoke. It is wonderfully, exquisitely impractical; I would love to own it. I never will. And that’s okay. I can let it go. The most expensive watch in the world is called the Henry Graves Supercomplication, made in 1933 by Swiss legend Patek Philippe. It is an astonishing mechanism of 900 parts that are able to imitate the bells of Westminster and replicate the New York night sky; it has kept time perfectly since its last winding in 1969

I feel similarly about the Apple Watch — at least, in the iteration that was unveiled Monday at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Sure, this is an exquisite thing, as beautiful as smart watches are likely to get. I’d gladly congratulate Tim Cook and give Sir Jony Ive a second knighthood .

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