The community is based around the objects… For enthusiasts, watches are neat. It’s an interesting thing because they are functional jewelry, and you can’t actually own that many cause they are expensive, and you can use even fewer at a time cause you only have two wrists (and even watch people will make fun of you if you wear two watches at once).
So the real community is talking about new things, what’s coming up, what you like and dislike, surprising history, a lot of stuff. In my group, we absolutely celebrate when someone gets a new watch, but not cause they’ve passed some kind of gate, but because they now have something they can enjoy and build memories with.
The truth is, marketers will take advantage of any hobby