I think luxury watches are absolutely status symbols. I also think this is a good thing, because if men don't have a reason to buy watches, the watch market won't be a large and vibrant as it is today. No one needs a watch to tell the time anymore, so men need an alternate reason to buy them.

I'm only 22 so I have many years of watch collecting ahead of me, and I want men to still be interested in watches in 20, 30 and 40 years. If a watch as a status symbol is what it takes to accomplish that, then so be it. As long as men still wear watches, some will realize how inherently awesome they are, become vintage collectors of under-the-radar pieces, and post about them on forums like OTD ;-)