To be sure, if I am going to pay thousands upon thousands for a watch, it better be perfect under a loupe.

Almost all movements are made of the same materials in the same way. It is just the nature of the item. Occasionally, a watch will have something unique, but the vast majority are made of the same essential materials in the same way.

The finishing and mechanical designs are the only things to really differentiate them.

With that in mind, it makes perfect sense that the people in that section of the watch market pay very close attention to these details, because that is essentially one of the few things that differentiates the brands. It is at such a level of refinement that this little details should be the only things that one should need to look at.

If we are talking pure innovation Zenith's new El Primero would probably my highlight.

What is new about it?

You are correct regarding your last point, Watches are expensive toys and often status symbols,

I only follow them from a distance. I try not to handle them because when I do, I am severely underwhelmed and I don't like feeling that.

But, because of my perspective, I actually like some of the more garish watches from Richard Mille and such or that all sapphire Hublot and other such watches. They use unique materials and designs and they look unique.

A highly refined classic dress watch looks no different from anything else from a distance.

The highly complicated watches are interesting, but I am not really impressed unless it is very compact. It is just gears and springs and modern manufacturing enables extremely precise machining and computer aided design. So, it isn't that impressive to me unless it predates this. What I see is that the more complicated a watch gets, the thicker and heavier it becomes.

people often think I'm mad walking around with a £12k BLNR on my wrist but nothing garners more attention than a Gold Watch.

It is funny how norms can move around. Some people think my $100 pen is over the top. They ask "why would you spend $100 on a pen?" while they hold their $800 disposable smartphone that does the same thing as a $200 one. And they are making payments on that phone as its value rapidly declines and its non-replaceable battery dies.