The things I love are the ones that aren’t technological at all… older things scream quality to me. (But I guess if you’re going after a computer or something that should be up-to-date, it’s a different story.)
Lately I have a thing for vintage brooches and earrings; gorgeous pieces that some old lady wore once upon a time.
And you mentioned a tiny, sleek camera… but I would love to own a clunky, old-fashioned, huge-lens camera from back before I was born.
Hope this fits the OP… maybe you were going for things that are more well-designed than sentimental?
Ha, that’s funny. My other camera that I bought last year is a Canon A-1 manual SLR that weighs about a pound. It came out when I was 3. And I’m so in love with it that I can’t believe I forgot to mention it in the OP.
Similar to the Canon Powershot above, I’m very impressed by my Pentax Optio S4. It has a tiny credit card-sized steel body marked with tiny concentric score lines in the metal. The lense retracts by collapsing into the camera chassis and then folding upwards.
Hewlett-Packard calculators.
Flashlights from Arc, Elektrolumens, and TnC. Linn hi-fi equipment.
Old Volvos. All-Clad and Le Creuset cookware.
Sabatier Au Carbone knives.
Pliers made by the Diamond Tool & Horseshoe Company, plus any number of antique tools.
Furniture made by Moosehead (the same could be said for any number of small manufacturers). Ittala glassware.
Ironwork from the Dragon Fly Forge (they’re just some very plain candlesticks, but I like 'em a lot). Filson clothing.
Reproductions made by the Shaker Workshops.
The Zwilling Küchenhilfe, the perfect scissors; indestructible, simple, sharp for decades, cuts virtually everything; Once in a while you come across someting and you don’t know whether it can be cut (wire, a leftover christmas tree…) but then you remember that that three generations of your family own those scissors and you have never seen them fail…
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Gibson Les Paul Custom and Fender Stratocaster guitars. Old ones, made of old-growth maple.
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Marshall amplifiers.
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fishbicycle named the guitars I would’ve, too. The thing about most of the stuff named is that they incorporate the best design, not just quality. The Fender Strat, for example, was originally derided as a “plank that could be made with a bandsaw” by Gibson and other luthier-based manufacturers, but that is the whole reason it excels - for what it is trying to do, nothing does it better in terms of functionality and design. The iPod, some of the cars, etc., strike me the same way. The unity of form and function have lead to some beautiful, enduring synergy.
I disagree with Marshall amps, though - the goods ones back in the '60’s were serendipity more than intent, the quality of Marshall amps has always been notoriously inconsistent and they are still trying to figure out how to recapture the magic of the old ones - and other amp makers are doing it better.
How about Pixar films - form (computer generated look with humane and complex characters who grab us) and function (predictable plots that can appeal to a child but also contain adult humor and complexity) combined with passion to produce the best of their class…
I have an alarm clock that I’ve had for 20 years. I took it to college with me where it fell from my top bunk onto a hard floor on numerous occasions. It’s woken me up well since 6th grade. I don’t think they make them anymore. It’s a company called “cosmo time”. 5 buttons: Snooze, Alarm set, Time set, Hour, Minute.
My Subaru Outback. You can just tell when you shut the door how well made it is.
Eh. I had one and it was a piece of crap. Granted, I may have just had a lemon, but the fact that it spent more time getting fixed than used doesn’t “quality” the first thing that comes to my mind when IBM notebooks are discussed.
