Help Desk

Ever since ThePuristS was founded as a forum community on Jun 1 2001 it has always been about inclusiveness and respect.

(the site started as my personal blog to share my experiences and knowledge and thoughts picked up through the school of hard knocks since I started collecting in 1976)

at the time there were really only three vibrant and active online watch enthusiast communities -

timezone which was a great community pre-dating ThePuristS

Paneristi which Guy Verbist founded about the same time as ThePuristS and which he later gave to me to care for and clean up; I subsequently gave it to three new owners after I and a moderator team cleaned it up, to maintain the spirit of Guy's founding of the site

and 

ThePuristS, which I founded on Jun 1, 2001 with the world's first brand recognized online resources, starting out with the Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin brand forums recognized by the respective brands a priori. Georges-Henri Meylan, Michel Faure, Francois-Henry Bennahmias from AP, and Claude-Daniel Proellochs (RIP) from VC were supportive from the time I proposed the idea to them.

To be fair, Timezone enjoyed great support from JC Biver - a true visionary - and Blancpain; as well as Rolf Schnyder (RIP) - another great visionary - and UN, after their respective brand forums were opened on TZ. and of course IWC through the great work of Michael Friedberg.

And Paneristi also, later after opening, received some recognition and support from Panerai and Angelo Bonati.

But ThePuristS was the first site and forum in the world which opened, a priori, with recognition and support from the brand and its executives.

From day one I tried to maintain a philosophy and policy of welcoming inclusiveness and respect - so long as you loved watches and respected our local rules of engagement, you were welcome here.

and we never held ourselves above others or felt the need to demean or talk shit about other sites or platforms.

watchuseek; poor mans watchforum; fratello; Rolex forum; military watch forum; Ernie Romers forum; et al were all part of the macro and microcosm as the internet continued to grow.

the world and the internet evolved, "social media" rose to prominence; Revolution, then A Blog to Watch, Watch Anish, and the current powerhouse Hodinkee (with editor in chief Jack Forster, a PuristS' alum) ascended to the High Table.

and PuristSPro, along with Timezone, are still around, with a vibrant active community.

as am I, a humble collector since 1976, a watch collecting blogger since 1997, and founder of ThePuristS since 2001.

I am puzzled, why does it need to be us vs them? is there really a need to denigrate and demean others while exalting ourselves?

let others play that game, not PuristS.

"If you like watches, and are willing to respect our local rules of engagement, you are welcome."

The PuristS' community is not only those regular visitors to this site and platform;

all are PuristS who love and appreciate watches and other passion filled objects of beauty and activities, and who love sharing that passion.

whether on Instagram, Facebook, Timezone, Hodinkee, or whatever other platform, site, group, or affiliation.

let us focus on what brings us together, our commonality and common interests;

not our differences and what drives us apart.

there is enough of that outside, let's preserve this as a safe haven of camaraderie and good will.

thanks,

TM

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