Watch news site with some level of criticism?

[akatsuki]

I am relatively new to collecting watches, but reading through the various news sources, I see a lot of puff pieces and press release re-prints. I suppose I was wondering if there was a more critical press available? Stuff like "Why is this movement being sold in an over-priced case for $xK?", or "the finishing is inferior to these 5 brands..." or even "hooray, X brand releases yet another color variation on the same watch and charges $2K more for it..."

Askmen's Watch Snob seems to be the only critical press out there, and, well, let's just say that the whole schtick, lack of consistency, and not very critical evaluation really isn't helpful. PuristS tend to get the depth, but of course they just review very high end stuff where it generally is just a matter of taste rather than construction quality.

[dwaze]

Good question, I'm curious about that too. Going to keep an eye on this post :)

[dnslater]

I am relatively new to collecting watches, but reading through the various news sources, I see a lot of puff pieces and press release re-prints. I suppose I was wondering if there was a more critical press available? Stuff like "Why is this movement being sold in an over-priced case for $xK?", or "the finishing is inferior to these 5 brands..." or even "hooray, X brand releases yet another color variation on the same watch and charges $2K more for it..."

Askmen's Watch Snob seems to be the only critical press out there, and, well, let's just say that the whole schtick, lack of consistency, and not very critical evaluation really isn't helpful. PuristS tend to get the depth, but of course they just review very high end stuff where it generally is just a matter of taste rather than construction quality.

Unfortunately many product review sites get free or borrowed "stuff" from the manufacturer to review. If they are too critical, this might hurt their ability to get "stuff" in the future to review. Also many of these sites thrive from advertisements from the same companies. Also, "overpriced" can be very relative/subjective in the watch industry, or with luxury goods in general. Some see no problem spending $5k for a quartz Patek Philippe for example, while others see it as ridiculous.

[akatsuki]

Unfortunately many product review sites get free or borrowed "stuff" from the manufacturer to review. If they are too critical, this might hurt their ability to get "stuff" in the future to review. Also many of these sites thrive from advertisements from the same companies. Also, "overpriced" can be very relative/subjective in the watch industry, or with luxury goods in general. Some see no problem spending $5k for a quartz Patek Philippe for example, while others see it as ridiculous.

I guess I would like a site that is willing to put a stake in the ground and say that $5K for a quartz PP is ridiculous.

Or that Omega's co-axial movement deserves a lot more press than IWC releasing yet a new color pattern on some watch.

Or yet another new watchmaker from nowhere that is stuffing ETA movements into standard cases for $3K is ridiculous. Or maybe it isn't cause they at least went to COSC standards and are doing x and y that are actually meaningful.

Or how about drawing a line in the sand that anything over $15K should use an in-house movement that is unique to the brand, and anything over, say $30K, should have a movement that is unique to the watch model?

Just to pick some arbitrary examples of where my opinion lies... I'd be okay if there were different opinions, but at least there would be some meat to the review.

[jrantasa]

Sometimes it really seems hard to find critical statements in media that are dependent on acvertising money. There was a nice exception, though:

I'm subscribing to a German watch magazine called Armbanduhren. Here in Finland and also in Germany many people think that Euro as a currency has heavily increased pricesof goods and services. In the latest issue of Armbanduhren this question was raised and it seems that in ten years (the lifespan of Euro) watch prices have in many cases rocketed heavily. They had many specific examples like some Longines models with a 130% price increase. Many Rolex and Omega models have gone up wih 50 to 60 %, TAG Monaco nearly 75%.

The conclusion was that it's quite hard to blame Euro for this. For example the prices of cars and many other things have gone up very moderately or even come down. Watch manufacturers tell us that increased material costs and development are to blame. I can't really undestand that because watches are relatively small and light objects. And where are all the groundbraking innovations? Those arguments could be just as well used in those branches where no price increase is to be seen. Inflation, too, is a much used argument, but it's still quite hard to see how that would justify a 70% price increase.

I was very glad to read the artcile, it's really good that someone brings up things like this. The writer of the article was quite gentle with his arguments but he let the numbers and well-chosen examples do the talking. It is evident that watch manufacturers just want our money, more and more of it every year while the products stay more or less the same.

EDIT: I certainly don't want to steer this off topic, I just wanted to share a recent example of critical watch journalism.

[jilgiljongiljing]

ablogtoread.com isnt too bad, I love the detailed reviews, but I wish he would be a bit more critical with some of them. But very nice pics and videos on lots of high end and mid range watches, definitely worth checking out if you havent already

[RTea]

That's what these forums are for. Real people with real reviews, critiques, criticisms, etc.

I only go to watch blogs and news related outlets when I need that little positive boost to help justify my current purchase.

There are some good youtube channels with pretty unbiased reviews including Dougfnj (I believe he is a member here), Dukedevil something or another, and Breitling Source.

[Eric L.]

Plenty of criticism already occurs on the various forums.

I suspect the post above regarding freebies is true.

[GeoffA]

ablogtoread.com isnt too bad, I love the detailed reviews, but I wish he would be a bit more critical with some of them. But very nice pics and videos on lots of high end and mid range watches, definitely worth checking out if you havent already

His HourTime Podcast parter, John Biggs, is much more critical of a lot of the insanity of the watch industry. The podcast is pretty entertaining and sometimes informative.

[novedl]

I guess I would like a site that is willing to put a stake in the ground and say that $5K for a quartz PP is ridiculous.

Or that Omega's co-axial movement deserves a lot more press than IWC releasing yet a new color pattern on some watch.

Or yet another new watchmaker from nowhere that is stuffing ETA movements into standard cases for $3K is ridiculous. Or maybe it isn't cause they at least went to COSC standards and are doing x and y that are actually meaningful.

Or how about drawing a line in the sand that anything over $15K should use an in-house movement that is unique to the brand, and anything over, say $30K, should have a movement that is unique to the watch model?

Just to pick some arbitrary examples of where my opinion lies... I'd be okay if there were different opinions, but at least there would be some meat to the review.

Imagine the cost of your $30k watch if brands were required to create a new caliber for every line within this price range......then imagine what the $15k watches would the cost to cover the development costs.
Were these the rules of the game, then this is a game I cannot afford to play. It confounds me why people would wish to increase the cost of this hobby?