Anything that is branded and expensive and easily recognizable...Rolex, Montblanc, Bose, BMW, Mercedes, Tiffany sterling, Mikimoto pearls, Expensive sports cars and autos, high end bikes..and the list goes on
The irony I have found is that typically the brands/products which are most coveted and or known by "joe blow" are often not the best quality and are typically grossly overpriced when compared with other competing less known brands...
For example I have owned three Rolex watches and a whole host of Montblanc pens and in each case the public perception and the hype was way better than what I actually got (for Rolex had a Datejust, Explorer, and now have a Sub) where other companies made products arguably as good, if not better (as in the case of Omega with their speedmaster, planet ocean seamaster, or deville dress watch) for way less money, or for the same money you can get a watch from IWC or JLC which puts the Rolex to shame from a workmanship standpoint.
With Montblanc pens I have two now, both gifts from my wife...had upwards of ten of them which were all sold within a week of buying them as for the money they were a ripoff, brands like Pelikan, Aurora, Namiki, Parker, and even Cross offered far nicer pens, which wrote better, were made better, and alot less money...
And I won't even consider owning Bose, especially after doing just a little research, they are pretty much the joke of the audio enthusiast community yet within the public eye they are "high end"
Other more obscure things which are often considered status symbols are expensive pipe and cigar lighters by Dupont, Dunhill, and Cartier.
High end Humidors, Expensive kitchen applicances and cutlery...for example Sub Zero, Thermadore, Jenn Air, Bosch, Viking, Henckles, Wustof...sterling silver from Goram, Reed and Barton...and even vacuum cleaners for some people with Dyson, Electrolux and Miele...though in some of the above due to competition the price may be high, and they are well known due to their target market (women) yet the product quality is pretty comparable (though electrolux vacuums supposedly are awful)
I used to be into big brands and status symbols, but the more of them I owned and the more I learned of the industries and the products the less I respect the bigger more known names amongst the masses and the more I respect the brands which make really good products which might not be the most well known.. Also I don't like the attention that I get when wearing some more known things, either I get absolute meatballs who make annoying comments, or worse when in a store trying to buy things sales people assume I am just willing to overpay because I happen to wear something expensive that they know of...I would rather have something truly nice for myself than something that everyone recognizes just because it is a big brand.
What is scary is that today there are so many more status symbols than there were just a decade ago...products that were reserved only for the rich such as high end appliances and what not are now becomming more main stream and giving people more and more ways to waste their money, so while in the past only a few things were obvious status symbols (house, car, watch, jewelery, boat, bike, television, clothes),. today there are so many other things such as baby strollers with the $900 Bugaboo that every yuppie in Manhattan just has to have...or the expensive Louis Vuitton luggage set.
If you want a decent discussion on the subject hit me up via PM...