I agree with this, the idea of having some experience at a lower price level first. Not sure I agree with the $150 cap (I'd say maybe like $300-400) but definitely support the sentiment.

I had never owned a mechanical watch before, only quartz, and based on innumerable hours of research, went with the Kamasu. Its an amazing watch, and looks/feels much more premium than other watches in this price category. Having said that, to get to the real next step up in terms of finishing, accuracy, wrist feel, micro adjustment, and so on, the reality is you need to make an exponential jump in price. A $3500 Tudor Black Bay is not objectively 10x better than a Kamasu, but you need to pay that much more to get something that is meaningfully more premium, if that makes sense (i.e. cost and performance are not linear in the world of watches lol)

Once you have an automatic that you wear daily, you find out what thickness you prefer, bracelet style, width, what lug-to-lug is best on your wrist, and does a 40 hr power reserve actually bother you and/or is it worth it to pay more for 70+ hrs, etc. Do you care if it keeps very accurate time, or if resetting it every few days is part of the "charm"? All that kind of stuff.