Horological Meandering

Hi All,

I am interested to know if the information shared on PPro has ever led you to purchase a watch. Did a post or discussion, or even the brand advertising (!), lead you to a watch or brand that you may not have otherwise considered? Perhaps you use the information here to research watches that you have already seen elsewhere?

How important is PPro in leading you to a new watch, compared with more traditional magazine adverts, billboards and the like?

Personally I still like glossy magazines with advertising and reviews, but I use Forums for in-depth discussion, and I know I have given some watches a second look because of positive comments by on-line colleagues.

Interested to hear your experiences with 'new media'.

Andrew

Before ThePuristS.com , predecessor of PuristSPro.com , I subscribed to every available watch magazine in each country of residence (I moved a bit).

I bought what "I thought I liked" but it was more heavily influenced by brands that could influence coverage with good reviews or advertising, then I would care to admit....... then.

After I was introduced to PuristS by watch-buddies, I was exposed to brands that I did not even consider before. It led to more in-depth knowledge of the good, bad and ugly.  That learning process continues and I have stopped all magazine subscriptions.

I started to look at Chopard LUC, AP (other than Offshore) and the independents.  Eventually, I was even invited by ThePuristS to be a Chopard forum moderator and 'retired' once.

Over the years, I discovered that many famous brands used Piaget movements and came out of retirement to help with the Piaget brand forum.

So, PuristS discussions have led me to purchase watches from LUC, AP, independents and Piaget, that I may never have committed to before.

I've also bought rare watches from fellow PuristS, whom I 'met' online that I could never have found on my own.

 

Regards,

MTF

This message has been edited by MTF on 2010-08-21 08:01:11

that one takes seriously influences.....

Having said this the net does play a role....

PuristSPro is great community.....
A great place to exchange ideas, information & most importantly have fun....

Of course, there are a few people amongst us that should not be here.. but eventually
they are "sent" off....

So, yes friends and purists that we respect do influence us, as they do outside the net....

This community offers both knowledge and fun...



Cheers

No message body

goes to show that the New Media have a Great influence over us.

I have definitely gained more knowledge of other Manufactures especially the AHCI/Indepedents that most people are not aware of in PPro.

How can you share the close friendship and espirt de corp without PPro? It would be almost impossible with print formats or post.

cheers

PAt

I certainly rely on forum information in searching for watches. Fortunately, most of the time when I become interested in a watch I become un-interested before I actually make a purchase. The forum is normally instrumental in that process. When that happens I usually become interested in another watch, so when I ultimately buy my choice has been shaped by information from the forum.

I would definitely say that among the very few watches I have bought new (I normally buy vintage watches), my choice of at least one (in addition to the PPro ABR, of course) has been based on forum information. (That one was my IWC UTC, where I used forum information to sort out the different types of time zone functions available and to decide whether IWC's movement was unique enough for my preferences.)

Thanks to PPro I was able gain insight into a world of independants that I never knew previously existed.  The established elite like Claret, Dufour, Presher, Daniels and Halter (too name but a few) all get there just desserts in the mainstream watch magazines.  But until I began visiting PPro a few years backI didn't know about, Dornbluth, Benzinger, (early Speak-Marin), RGM, Sarpaneva, Habring, or Voutilainen.  No I still rely a great deal on PPro to provide insight into the up-and-comers in the watch industry. 

Thanks again

...and I would certainly be lying if I suggested that Puristspro.com and other similar websites have not influenced my taste in wristwatches over the years.  Like many others who have visited this site, I've come to appreciate the technically and visually outstanding timepieces being produced by AHCI members and other independents.  Whenever I visit Las Vegas I now go out of my way to visit a well-known shop to gawk at the Gruebel Forsey timepieces (amongst others) and try on a few Journes, watches that I would not feel comfortable playing around with if I saw only the price tags and knew nothing of the technical feats.  The contributions of many members on this site has given me an such an appreciation.

That being said, I still enjoy print magzines for the glossy photos, interesting articles and portability and I expect that the best of these print magazines will maintain a strong readership for the foreseeable future.  There are a number of print magazines that act as glorified P.R. - I expect the health of such publications to continue declining as the number of online resources continues to grow.

I am certainly not influenced by the web in terms of buying decisions but I cannot deny the value of the information esp here on PPro.

I have made decisons to buy ( mainly vintage  I might add) by contacting like minded members.I appreciate this does nothing for the sales of watches from our sponsore who spruik new watches , I find the information and people availabble on this site invaluable.

 

Julian

Andrew,

The number of AP, PP, and VC purchases  that I can attribute directly to the influence of ThePuristS.com , PuristSPro.com , and the friends I've made from these sites is approximately 3-4 per year for the six years I've been here.  Some of those watches are now in the hands of these same friends, just as I received some of mine from them.

As far as I can tell, the important factors shaping this strong  influence are brand and model awareness, timely availability updates, reviewer and user experiences, and an expanded knowledge of  the range of options from which to choose. 

The sites have also led me to consider many brands and models about which I would not otherwise have known, and has provided welcome information, entertainment, and diversion even when the influence is ultimately toward my own decision is to avoid a particular brand or model.

The brands should like knowing, and the community should continue to warn users, that the average purchase price and frequency of purchase are both likely to be increased by exposure to this medium.  Without doing a precise calculation, I'd estimate these numbers from the single case study I know best:

                                                  6 Years Pre-PuristS Exposure      6 Years Post-PuristS Exposure

Purchases per year                                      4                                                         3-4

Average purchase                                   $3,750                                                 $33,042

Individual experiences may vary.  Consult your financial adviser or mental health professional if untoward effects are experienced in the areas of net worth, total debt, famiy harmony, work/life balance, sex drive, or sleep.

Park

 

 

 

I think your individual case study can be replicated across this forum with statistical significance. Like the others before, the Purists have indeed influenced my purchases (and in some cases my change of mind when I thought of selling some pieces that dont get wrist time). It is nearly impossible for any sales person to convey the same amount of information here even with multiple visits, unless he happens to be a WIS as well. At any rate, it would be hard to expect that salesman to give completely unbiased information, including recommending alternatives. More information=more knowledge=more certainty in making purchases=higher price acquisitions that you would not typically do on the spur of the moment. With the Purists, there are many "Inception" pieces that have already been planted by any, not just the mods like Vlad, in the back of our minds.

The Pre PPRO Exposure, and the PPRO exposure  speak loud!



Does it really have an impact on Sexuality, Dr Freud?



Best, my friend.


Nicolas

Nicolas,

In a sample of approximately 30 WIS, admitted sexual effects noted to date as a result of exposure to PuristS media include:

A. Cold shoulder from wife for spending more on watches than on her

B. Cold shoulder from wife for spending more time on PuristS media than speaking to her

C. Extramarital longings and acts while on watch-related travel

D. Decreased time on human porn sites because of time spent on watch porn sites

Not yet admitted by any subject in the sample, but theoretically to be expected, are:  (E) decreased drive due to lack of sleep while cruising the site, and (F) increased confidence due to the reassuring presence of the latest acquisition on the wrist..  I intend to write more later about this reassuring function of our habit.

Park

 

 

I worked slowly over the years to lewer her in to the den of the WIS
Just got her an ROO with purple rubber and diamond bezel
And now she's starting to get it
Mwaaaaahhhhhhaaaaa

[nt]

with your post.  I am sitting in the living room, in the doghouse following my latest Ulysse Nardin purchase, done without consent.  I am an example that helps to confirm your findings.  Prior to Purist, my knowledge of brands was very small (I had not heard of most of the brands discussed on the site).  My expenditure per watch has increased dramatically,  and my home life has suffered a bit.  When I finish this post and looking at the rest of the site for more info, I will retire to the couch for the evening, hoping to return to my bed in the near future ( This is not a joke, I am really sleeping on the couch).  Interestingly, when I look at the watch I purchased I think I made the right decision.  The price was too good to pass up.  If this incident does blow over, the next step is to determine how long I have to wait until my next purchase without ending up on the couch or divorced.  I thank the website for expanding my horizons, helping me decide how to spend my disposable income, and maxing out my credit cards ( I am smiling as I write this, I love my new watch!!! ).

Stewart

Stewart,

You definately aren't alone in this.

The problem is so common that  I've heard men suggest that the solution to this dilemma is to deceive one's spouse, and I absolutely do not agree with them.  As many have written before, one solution is to engage her interest in the hobby through education and a mechanical timepiece of her own, but this carries the risk of being asked to share watches if it does succeed.  I believe an open discussion of why this matters to you more than golf or boats or sportscars or country clubs or wine or fine dining or whatever else you don't spend your time and money doing, coupled with a mutually agreed budget, is the only long-term solution for the married man with financial limits.

Park

is not an option.  One, because I think it is wrong.  Two, when would I wear the watch?  At some point she would see the watch, and the deception plus the expenditure would make things worse.  I told her I was thinking about buying another watch.  I guess she did not realise how serious I was.  Your advice about mutual involvement is good.  She makes jewelry as a hobby.  This is in the ballpark as far as similarity of interest goes.  Admittedly, I have spent a lot in the last few months.  I think I need to just slow down and look at the long term picture.  I think she thinks I am going to spend our life savings.  I just need to show that this is not the case, and I think the interest in watches will become an expected, normal part of my/our life.  Thanks for the reply and the advice.

Stewart

Your story and predicament reminded me of Pplater’s post on the 12 Steps of addiction, aka “A WIS’ life”.

 

Click here to read the story .

 

Enjoy and I hope you are out of the dog-house soon.

 

A

but there is a large amount of truth in there as you know.  As I read that, I realize I am walking that road.  I am not hiding anything from the wife (yet), but my behavior is so similar to that post in many ways it is scary.  I will briefly reflect on how I have come to be the owner of a number of terrific watches, with a very unhappy wife.  I hope others find this amusing, and apologies that it will sound very much like the post you directed me to, although it is true.

1.  In May or June this year, I sit down to flip through a Time magazine, and on the inside of the cover is an ad for a Cartier Santos 100, ADLC coated steel with steel bezel (at the time I did not know what a bezel was).  First thought, there is no way I can afford this watch, but I might as well find out, so I check out the Cartier web site.  It is more than I have ever spent on a watch, so I need to think about it.

2. In the meantime, I start to surf the web and find many online sites selling and discussing luxury watches, and my eyes are opened.  I have always liked watches, and own an entry level Rolex, Omega, and a Baume my wife just bought me for my birthday.  I never knew about ALS, Patek, Glashutte, IWC, VC, etc.  I had heard of a few of these brands, but this was mostly new territory (where I live you will not see any of these brands in a store).  I spend hours looking at multiple sites, making notes on which brands and models I like, all the while my price ceiling is going up as I know at some point soon I am going to purchase a 'real' watch.  After hours and hours of reseach, pages of notes, I decide it is the ALS world time with 2nd time zone, and all the cool cities on the bezel.  To pull this off I will have to put part of the purchase on a credit card, wire some money from a savings account, and pay the rest from every day checking.  Realizing the hoops I will have to jump through to buy the watch, common sense wins and I lower my sights.

3. I am back to the Cartier, the whole reason I started looking in the first place.  The ADLC with the steel bezel just doesn't seem good enough, as I notice the model with the 18K rose gold bezel.  This model is 3-4 times less expensive than the ALS I was about to buy,  so it is a bargain by comparison.  Finally I make the purchase.  It wasn't as hard as I thought to drop a few thousand on the credit card (uh-oh).   The watch arrives, it is awesome.  I take pictures, make my first post on this site, and revel in being a part of this community.

4. It has been 2-3 weeks, I still love my watch, but all it does is tell the time.  I really would like a watch with a complication or two.  Minute repeator, toubillon, and perpetual calenders are out of reach, but there are a number of lovely models with moonphase, which truly adds to the attractiveness of a timepiece.  Again, after hours of research (I am now staying up until 2-3 in the morning looking at watches and surfing this website), I decide on a Glashutte PanoMatic Lunar.  Which model?  Rose gold/black dial?  Rose gold/silver dial?  White gold?  Truly tough decisions (why is life so difficult?).   Finally, it is the rose gold/black dial.  But as I am in the process of making my purchase I keep thinking the XL model would be a better fit on the wrist (bigger is better), and that the white gold with rose gold applied numerals model really 'pops'.   It is only $4000 more than the watch I was about to buy.  Considering the overall cost of the watch, this is a small amount.  I make the purchase. 

5.  Watch arrives.  WOW.  My dreams have come true.  I can't wear this watch to work, because it might become damaged, so every night when I get home I put it on, polish it, and stare lovingly at it while I surf this website.  Of course I posted pictures of the new acquisition.  During this time I have purchased multiple books on the history of watches, modern watchmaking geniuses, and watch repair.  Reading these books is not as fun as buying watches.  I notice my wife and I are not talking as much as we usually do. 

6.  We go on vacation.  What are the odds that there is a watchmaker in Livingston, Montana?  His watches are beautiful, I do not have anything like them in my 'collection' (I now have a collection), and I cannot ignore the karma factor that a watch lover like myself has stumbled across this oasis of horology in the middle of nowhere, Montana.  Of course I buy a watch.  Who am I to go against destiny, fate, etc.  A great addition to my collection.  When I get home, I purchase a watch case/automatic winder that will wind 8 watches and store 10.  It has become a pain to keep all my watches set with the correct time and date, so I have solved that problem.  I also notice that I have a lot of empty space in my new storage case.

7.  It has been 2 weeks since the receipt of my latest purchase.  Looking at my watches, I realise I almost have everything I want, except a watch with a solid rose gold case (I have the Cartier with rose gold bezel, but most of the watch is steel).  This would really round out the collection.  Luckily I find a sale.  The prices are too good to pass up.  Hell, they are almost giving the watches away!!!  There is a Ulysse Nardin (I had just recently decided a UN would be my next purchase) 42mm, rose gold case, dual time, sunburst dial.  Stunning!!  If I don't buy this watch soon, someone else will snap it up and I will never have this opportunity to get such a great deal, ever again.  I just have to pay my credit card bill down enough so I can put the UN on the card.  I send the electronic payment, then call my credit card company daily to see if the payment has cleared.  During this time I am checking on the watch daily (more like 5 times daily) thinking someone is going to buy it out from under me.  As soon as my payment clears, I buy the watch.  I told my wife I was thinking about doing this, but I don't think she thought I was serious.  She is pissed off!!  I don't understand why, it is only the fourth watch I have purchased in 3 months, all more expensive than any watch I previously owned.  This brings us to the present, with me sleeping on the couch and a wife who looks at my new watches and sees the new kitchen she could have had.

8.  So here I am to today.  Who knew that looking at magazines could be so dangerous.  Maybe if I hadn't seen that Cartier, things would be different.  I used to think 2-3 thousand dollars was a lot to spend on a watch.  I now realize that I rarely look at anything less than 10-15 thousand.  As I write this, I am wearing my brand new Ulysse Nardin 42mm rose gold, dual time, sunburst dial, screw down protected crown, with in house movement, COSC certified.  Pictures to follow soon.  Do not think I am unhappy as I write this.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  With time the wife's anger will subside, and life will get back to normal.  This review of the last three months and my recent purchases has made me aware that I don't have a casual sport watch.  Hmmm.  The Hublot Big Bang is nice.....

Stewart

You post is very entertaining and right on the mark, as I too have been smitten with the same affliction, in approximately the same time frame.  As with you, every watch I find and lust for seems (often exponentially) more expensive than the last! The only variation I can see between our recent experiences is that I have gotten my wife on board by buying her a watch or two along the way (eg Bell & Ross, et al).  As for me, I recently discovered F. P. Journe; God help me.......................

how strong the pull is to keep purchasing.  I said to myself that my last purchase was it for a while, and here I am looking at sport/diver watches thinking about how I could swing another piece.  I think I need to stop looking at pictures.

No message body

I may be anachronistic, but:

 

I enjoy print media of varying types. I read books and magazines on the iPad and Kindle, but I enjoy the tactility of books and having a library.

 

I now believe that digital reproduction offers a valid recreation of recorded music, but I enjoy the alternative listening experience from vinyl, the process of playing vinyl and hunting rare recordings no longer available in new media formats.

 

And I enjoy mechanical watches and clocks, even though modern digital displays are accurate and convenient.

 

So I think there is a place for Internet watch sites, but they fill a different need for me and will not replace other media. The obvious advantages are up-to-date information (but with an earlier use-by date), interactivity with like-minded folk and immediacy of communication.

 

There will be a place for both the new and the old in my life for a while I think.

 

Andrew

I'm a bit surprised to see how influential print media still are with the respondents so far -- very interesting to me.

I don't subscribe to (or purchase) any print publications anymore -- pretty much 100 percent of my watch information comes from online sources.  I'm pretty much a die-hard Purist (relative to other sites, where I go only from time to time), and found KV here, among others -- so I can definitely say that the postings here have had an influence on me.

For myself, however, I would draw a distinction in that for me the PuristS is not "new media" -- it is a "community."  The former term conjures up commercially-sponsored electronic communication device -- the latter, a group of like-minded individuals unified by shared interests and mutual respect.  Sorry if it is not in line with the PuristsPro economic model, but I for one don't pay any attention to the company-sponsored ads and announcements that have become prominent on the site -- I go to read the posts from my PuristS friends in order to see what they are thinking and experiencing.

Just my 2 cents...

Best,

Gary G

Thanks to this website, I could  discover a lot of watches, especially from the Independants like KV or De Bethune.

It also offer us the possibility to get an horological culture,  to better know / understand this world.

Now, does it have influenced me at the moment of the purchase?

No, because I always ask to my wrist, not to others, at the moment of the  final decision.



Best,

Nicolas
This message has been edited by amanico on 2010-08-22 00:23:18

.... it doesn't matter: so long as the word 'watch' features, or there's a picture of anything from an Ingersoll 'Mickey Mouse' to Lord Arran's ultra-complication, it's a must-read. However, that is generally for entertainment value: if you are talking about influence, then (candidly) it begins and ends with these fora and this community particularly.

As you know Andrew, there's a dearth of knowledgeable resources in this neck of the woods, and it's a stretch to find anything in the stores other than the LVMH/Richemont volume sellers. The contents of the watch box are largely the result of the 'Passion, Information and Opinion' (as Nicolas correctly says) of contributors including Bernard, TM, CL and the Devil Amanico himself. They will probably also be responsible for the next mortgage and the next divorce!

Cheers,
pplater.

PPRO has lead me to FP Journe. I have heard & seen FP Journe years before I took a plunge on it. I was curious about this brand and started reading the posts the passionate members here discussed on their new purchases. I started to dwell into my own research, readingmore what watch enthusiasts have to say about this brand, the watches, and creations from way back. I traced as far back as i could on this very website to the 1st page when the forum was created and it did stirred some serious emotions in me. I called my AD and went down in person to have a look of the pieces. There and then, I was sold.

I have since attained the old chronograph in ruthenium series, Resonance and the CS. I'm still dreaming about the Tourbillion DS but it seems that part of my passion have somehow died when the forum was closed (that is another story which I dont wish to start). It is the very posts of the members here that lead me to purchase these watches. No adverts, magazines has led me that way. PPRO allowed unbiased opinions on watch brands which lead me to take on my own personal view and passion.

I still wear my daily Ruthenium chrono and it is a constant reminder on how I fell in love with these watches & how much it meant to me and PPRO has its history etched in them.
Thanks PPRO.

In my case it is Panerai, I really wasn't into it before reading people's opinion and passion for them. Otherwise in general, I tend to think that we trust specialists in our network for information on cars, movies, restaurants, watches, etc. I feel PPro has a huge trust value since the opinions are for non pro specialists who amateurs like us see from the same consumer angle in general.
Cheers,