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As someone who has just spent £5,500 on a seiko, albeit a limited edition Grand Seiko, I'll give answering your question a shot...
I own a few 'expensive' watches and a plenty of cheap ones too.
For me, I see value in the engineering, finishing and attention to detail as well as the historical or 'heritage' elements too. More importantly for me though is probably the memories associated with each watch...
My Rolex Explorer was bought to wear on my wedding day. An Omega Seamaster gold cap I have was purchased with a small amount of money left to me by my grandmother. My Nomos Metro was bought to celebrate a promotion at work, etc etc.
Going back to engineering, I own normal seiko watches which cost me between £50 and £150 and the difference in quality between that and the Grand Seiko or Rolex is vast. Is it worth a 10x, 20x or even 50x price difference? I guess that's up to the individual. Personally, I've never felt disappointed with any watch I've bought in those sorts of price range.
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Soul
mmccarthy
As a tangent to this point, with supercars, I can understand where their high price tags come from. I understand why people are willing to shell out so much more money than your average car to own one.
I don't understand the same feeling with regards to watches though. How do the manufacturers justify the cost and what is it that makes the consumer willing to spend so much? (Let's pick an arbitrary amount of £5k for example)
Is it that it's more an item of jewellery than a time-keeping instrument?
This is just a general question to anyone who fancies chipping in with some info, but I'd be interested to hear people's opinions.
P.S. I can't remember the last time I saw a watch that wasn't a Seiko/Citizen that I'd like to own. I am a heathen.