Horological Meandering

I prefer to post it on the main forum and not the 'independent' part cause if possible I would like to see many different answers ;-)

I would say that the AHCI certainly has been material for the development of the independent watch makers. Without them the industry would look differently today. Having said that, I suppose today its role might not be the same anymore. So in essence, they paved they way for a lot of young makers but not sure if it still has the same prestige as 15 years ago. But I have a lot of respect still for what they did.

But I appreciate the work they’ve done and how easy they make it to find independents. 

Which basically means I very much enjoy their efforts and so donate a bit of currency annually. Imho they desperately need to modernize their use of the internet and effectively communicate their goals, efforts, and accomplishments. Each member (watchmakers) have a story. How well is that effectively being told? I very much enjoy their hard-covered book and look forward to a visionary bringing the AHCI's benefits and desires into the future.

If you look at the present and past members, you'll see the names of the most reputable masters, but it takes time to become part of that "club", which means that being famous and promising today has nothing related to a likely future access.

I would broaden your post by asking how many of these new young watchmakers will be still here in the next 5 years, but that's a topic that deserve its own post.

I evaluate watches by their design,mechanics and not by their memberships and if I have to be honest, the new watchmakers need to find their own style.
IMHO

For me, the most important thing is to see their creations at the annual fair. Even if many of the members do not do new things every year, you get a chance to talk to them and gain insight into how they have thought. They can also get me interested in floor clocks, table clocks and things that normally don't interest me that much. It seems AHCI is thriving as they welcome visitors like no one else does.

...it is also the perfect opportunity to livestream it, do interviews, showcase the latest creations, etc. Alas, in recent years they've not done that

Membership has zero influence on purchase decisions.

For me AHCI membership is a distinctive marker of excellence. I bought several watches because the maker is or was AHCI member, and of course because I like the watch. I have watches by Calabrese, Preziuso, Van der Klaauw and Nienaber amongst others. They are unique, although there are of course also great watchmakers outside of AHCI.

Nowadays with MSM and internet the can bild there own platform . I have bought many watches from AHCI members in the past because it was a nice indicator that they were serious watchmakers with respect from their colleagues.

…but it was very important some years ago. For those of us who developed an interest in the Independents but were unsure of the provenance or prospectivity for any given watchmaker, AHCI offered an implied seal of approval. Sure, not all Independents were members, but many who mattered were. Would they have gained airplay without that forum? Perhaps; perhaps not. Indeed: for a while it was a personal ambition to have a piece from each AHCI member in the collection; that very quickly proved unrealistic!
It’s interesting to see the post from SteveH above, firmly of the opinion that AHCI has become irrelevant. Steve’s views are to be given great weight, given his time here as AHCI moderator (and influencer!), and still deeply immersed in top end Independents. If he says it is now unimportant, then it’s probably unimportant.
Where do we look now? The pundits, the bloggers, the vloggers and… the auction houses! The Geneva season starts this week, and the catalogues are stuffed full of Independent watches, many of them jewels. Watches we could only dream about, and which were once virtually unobtainable. It’s a good time to be alive.
Cheers,
pplater.