To me, it is the appreciation of hundreds of years of human ingenuity and hundreds of man hours that went into the mechanism and watch to make it work. Annual calender, perpetual, The ability to turn raw materials ( iron ore, gold ingots, sand, etc ) into beautiful and well crafted micro machines that can tell the time, date, moon phases, alarms, etc. The spinning balance wheel in each watch reminds me of my own heart beat, that myself and the watch is alive and ready to take on this world. Our mastery of time and machine. Don't get me started on the Tourbillon, dual rotors to cancel out errors, temperature compensation on spring and balance wheel. And how accurate mechanical chronometers is what allowed seafarers to sail the world centuries ago because it allowed longitude to be determined accurately long before the advent of GPS. In short, without those time keeping devices and the technologies to make it accurate, the world will be a much different place today, and a lot of those technologies are in the mechanical watches that we wear today.
When i first bought my sub, the main reason that caused me to part with the money is the mechanism. I fell in love with the mechanism. Then i learned about movement finishing, and started my foray and interest into German and independent brands. The finishing of Lange's balance cock, the beveling of Phillip Dufour watches, etc. The status part was and still secondary. Good to have, but not the main reason.
Most people also think of a BMW as a status symbol. But the E46/E90 generation is also tuned to be one of the best drivers car that will put a smile on the driver every time he/she takes a corner, the steering weight and feel, the 50-50 weight distribution, the way it pivots on your bottom, the smooth snarl of the NA inline 6 when you rev it to the red line, snap to the next gear and start the process all over.