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BREAKING NEWS: New ownership

67K views 429 replies 322 participants last post by  tdiallo 
#1 ·
Dear watch friends, dear members, dear visitors,

Time has come for me to hand over my baby, Watchuseek, to a third party I believe and have trust in.

After 16 years of hard work (seemed like 24/7 all this time) building the largest watch forum in the world, it is time for me to step down, and focus on other projects. They will not necessarily be business projects, although I am planning to stay in the watch world (what else?), perhaps as a distributor for a few brands in the Benelux, I don't know.

What I do know is that I'm definitely planning to share more time with my wife and family. They have been coping with me for all these years. Never a real holiday (I always had to have internet access to work…). But they gave me the space to work and share my hobby with so many watch friends all over the world.

Time for a bit more relaxation, less work hours and less stress. The heart rhythm problems that occurred while I was at Baselworld last March certainly was a sign for me. A big one! It made me realize that working this hard (I also have a full time job as a team leader on a school for children with special needs) was not good for my health, and I was the only one that could do something about it.

During the many years I was approached by a couple of interested parties, but VerticalScope seemed to be the right choice at the right time.

Don't get me wrong, the decision was a very tough one, and it took me lots of time and headaches to finally make one. You don't give up on your baby that easy, I can promise you that. And there is of course my team, the wonderful people behind those usernames, the voluntary moderators, and the team of MaL's. It's hard to leave the team, almost just like that. It's tough, really tough, believe me. They have been doing an absolutely great job in the best possible harmony. Any company would wish to have such a dedicated and warm team. Thank you guys!

I would also like to thank all the sponsors and advertisers. Thank you for your business and your friendship. You made sure I could pay all the bills to keep the site up and running, and more.

Last but NOT least, I want to thank YOU, our members, every single one of you. You are an important if not THE most important part of the success of Watchuseek. Thank you SO much.

Dear friends, I hope you will understand my decision, the reasons why I wanted to step down, why this step is so important for me at this stage in my life.

The team from VerticalScope will not be doing any major changes to the site and your membership will continue like it has done all this time. I wish you and yours the VERY best, and hope this hobby and the ongoing discussions will last forever.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Ernie Romers
Founder and former owner of world's largest, most visited, and BEST watch forum site … WATCHUSEEK !
 
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#2 ·
Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself to you all. My name is Philip, I am a community manager for Verticalscope, I am part of a small team that will be joining the WatchUSeek.com to take over the webmaster duties for Ernie.

We are here to help primarily with the technical end of things and help make the jobs of the current Mods/Admins easier. I posted a real basic run down to answer common questions below. If you have more questions or concerns please feel free to post them in response.

What are our intentions?

We bring reliability, support and the infrastructure needed to ensure that the community will continue to be around for years to come. It's our goal to work with the mod/admin team to help provide the resources and required work to give this community a broader reach, to attract new members, and to better the overall knowledge shared in the community.

Will leadership change?

Continuity is the focus here, YOU as the membership work very hard to keep building this community while your mod/admin team keep the walls and the roof up in this place; we are primarily here to make sure the lights stay on. Every community is unique and should always be respected in that regard. You all have established your own unique rules and regulations and a strong reputation that is carried by all of this. For us it's paramount to maintain this level of integrity and enthusiasm.

What am I here for?

Our primary role is to be the technical contact as I said earlier. You all contributed to building the strong foundation WatchUSeek.com was built on. Moving forward we will all work together to keep the momentum and the community growing. We will be on the forum checking in daily to make sure regular maintenance is taken care of and keeping things running smoothly from behind the scenes. We will also be setting up a help desk on the site for when you have questions or issues with the site or your account and need assistance.

I do look forward to getting to know you all and this unique community better.

Thanks,

Philip
 
#112 ·
+1
Sincerely thanks
 
#7 ·
Despite being a fairly new member its clear to see how much work has gone into the website and how much time it takes to run it!
Thanks for all the hard work Ernie, I love watchuseek and it's all thanks to your and your moderators hard work!

Good luck for the future, hopefully we'll still see you on the forum in some degree.
 
#215 ·
Very nice/interesting to see a fellow Canadian on tuner management team. Congrats on jumping into one of the best forums on the 'net.
Hello Everyone, The name is Helena, I manage the forum management team here at VS. Wanted to make a quick into, I will be helping Phil out with this announcement. So you will see my posts here and there. Thanks Helena
 
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