What are your expectations when you buy a watch?

Quite simply, what specific things (tangible and intangible) do you expect to gain in return for the money you spend on a mechanical watch?

• When you spend $500 or less?
• When you spend $501 - $3000?
• When you spend $3001 - $6000?
• When you spend $6001 - $15,000?
• When you spend $15K+?

For myself, as goes watch performance I have two types of expectations.

1. Physical performance -- this is pretty much the same no matter what I pay for a watch. I mostly expect that thing thing won't fall apart in the course of using it. Since I don't live an especially rugged lifestyle, I have no reason to expect that even the cheapest mechanical watch should be unable to meet my expectations. I'm well aware of the stronger and less strong ways to assemble watch components -- screw pins vs. pressure pins to hold bracelet links, for example -- but these days, even the least "tough" of them, when properly executed are more than sufficient.
2. Timekeeping performance -- I expect 30 seconds per day accuracy from watches costing less than $3000. Above $3000, I expect chronometer grade (or better) timekeeping accuracy.

What I expect in terms of physical, functional and ergonomic design, and aesthetic design, (and the resulting execution) is a whole different matter. The more I spend, the more I expect in each of those dimensions. There are too many factors to list individually by price range, but I can offer some examples:

• Functional design -- At some point above $6K, I expect the outer edge of a rotor to be weighted with gold rather than, say, lead or some other non-luxury metal. Similarly, for a dive watch, above $100, I expect the rotating bezel not to rotate on its own so long as I'm awake when I wear it.
• Physical design -- Above $6K, I expect the maker has put enough thought into the dial so that s/he doesn't have to lop off part of the numbers that denote the hours on the dial of a chronograph watch. If that means using baton markers instead of numbers, so be it, but seeing 1/3 of a "4", for example, just doesn't work for me, at least not at $6K+. As another example, I'd have to get well below $50 before I would not expect the design of the lugs to be such that pressure pins won't securely hold the bracelet to the watch case.
• Ergonomic design -- At $500+ I expect that there's nothing physically harmful or painful associated with wearing the watch. For example, the crown shouldn't be so sharply cut that when pressed against the back of my hand, it abrades or actually cuts/tears my skin. Or, a design on the caseback shouldn't scrape the skin on my wrist/arm as the watch moves up and down over time.
• Aesthetic design -- I expect that visual balance -- be it asymmetrical balance or symmetrical balance -- exists among the elements of the watch's face. I won't buy any watch that doesn't have this quality. I'd sooner the watchmaker omit a feature and retain the visual balance than include it and mess up the visual balance. One pricey example of a very well made watch that is visually a disaster, and not just because I don't like "exposed guts" watches, is Breguet's GMT Tradition model.
  
  
  
  
  As much as I don't at all like watches that exposed their insides, I at least can't say of Breguet's uncomoplicated Tradition that the visual balance is a total disaster.
  
  
  
  Breguet's Marine GMT is another.
  
  

All the best.

What are your expectations when you buy a watch?