At dinner parties in late 2008, some Wall Street bankers and traders bemoaned the foolishness of their "top tick" purchases: a $100,000 car, a place in the Hamptons and exclusive country-club memberships. Human-resources departments got requests for low-interest loans to meet monthly expenses of certain employees. Goldman Sachs changed how it doled out certain stock grants as a way to get cash into the hands of squeezed employees.

Those nightmares are fading. "In September and October, things started to light up, and November was a fantastic month for bookings," says Tom Smyth, owner of St. Barth Properties, which rents vacation homes on the Caribbean island of St. Barts. A three-bedroom home with an ocean view costs at least $15,000 a week.

Robb Report's December issue featured an offer for two silver Mercedes-Benz sports cars: a fully restored 1954 model known as "the Gullwing," for doors hinged at the car's roof, and its 2011 counterpart. With a $1 million price tag, the package sold in 36 hours to a man the magazine won't identify.

More than a dozen people are on a waiting list at London Jewelers, a Long Island retailer that caters to vacationing Wall Street types, for certain watches made by Switzerland's Patek Philippe SA that track the moon's phases and cost as much as $200,000.

Demand for luxury watches has been gradually rising for months, says Candy Udell, president of London Jewelers. By May, people who delayed big-ticket purchases for fear of looking ostentatious were venturing back into pricey boutiques. "They couldn't hold back any longer," she says.