I would say that there is a TOTAL difference between "High End BRAND", and ''High End WATCH".
For example, AP, Patek, JLC and etc, all produce Grand Complications, Keep a sense of timeless style, and Treat Finishing as just as important as the internals of a watch. That makes them an Extremely High End Brand. The same would go for Rolex, Omega, Breitling as decent high-end names as well since they also insert a great amount of design, effort, and material on some models. However, even High end BRANDS, produce non-high end material. For example, IWC produces incredible classy, refined, well finished watches, but for example, you compare a simple entry level IWC Spitfire with lets say, A Daytona. obviously the Daytona would be more High end WATCH, with probably similar finishing efforts, but with a better movement and all. Another would be the Daytona 4130 vs the Breitling B01 on a Navitimer or Chronomat, they would almost be pretty much the same High end WATCH, but brandwise, rolex may be perceived as more high-end because of their lines of watches, more classic less tooly style, and more political top-of-the-food-chain brand ambassadors. In the end, I guess we should really separate High end BRANDS from WATCHES. Each brand has it's specialty watches, Each brand has a theme to follow as well. If VC suddenly started producing 2-3,000 dollar entry level watches with borrowed movements that are lets say.. Mickey Mouse themed...., that would surely affects its "High End Brand" Image making VC less "great", but that doesnt mean their specialty high end watches' quality would degrade. Their best of the best will still be High end WATCHES.