Horological Meandering

There is another part of the market that does not find WatchProSite appealing - this segment genuinely like watches because they think they're beautiful and works of art, the typical person in this segment does buy expensive watches frequently.  BUT, they aren't extremely familiar with the technicals/mechanics and the details that makes the product special.  They're typically more status and/or brand-name focused too.  We get a few of these members on the website every year - they try out WPS or they lurk, and we're not able to retain all of them.  Sometimes they feel that they're starting at a disadvantage and they don't feel that they'll ever catch up in knowledge.  Some of these people love to talk about values and would stay if they could talk about financial values in the discussion forum - but we really try to avoid that.  Sometimes individuals in this segment feel that WPS requires a strong commitment - years of investment in reading and responding on the site, plus years of investment in reading up on the details of watches and to educate themselves about the product - that's a lot of patience!  One individual feels that WPS is "his dad's watch website" and prefers to just stay on Instagram himself.  Some don't find that long-term investment appealing and they default back to their preferred medium - Instagram!  Instagram doesn't require any level of commitment and one can come in and leave when they please.  And there are other reasons they don't stay on our website; too many to list.  And there might even be reasons that I'm not aware of - I don't claim to know everything.  One member who posted for a couple years wanted to do exclusive GTG events but he wanted to cherry pick the guest list and WPS is all about fairness and equal access to all and we couldn't really reconcile with that.  There are also other segments too.  The team at WPS really tries to have something for everyone - we all remember when we were early collectors and not that knowledgeable about the subject and we all know we have someone or some group to thank for improving our knowledge.  So we really try to be accommodating to a wide audience.  And we're trying to figure out ways we can lower the barriers to entry!  

But overall, I think we are one of the BEST if not THE BEST website on the market that integrates both a news/blog and a discussion forum.  But we have serious competition.  We have professional publications that compete with us like Hodinkee, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Revolution.  I'd say the team at Revolution writes pretty darn good articles - amongst the best in the print industry.  Their journalists and editors are very knowledgeable.  The questions I hear by watch journalists in the Questions and Answers sections of these press conferences really show that some of these journalists know NOTHING about the topic.  Some journalists don't even know the difference between a hair spring and a mainspring.  Other journalists are knowledgeable - when a magazine says they want a 200 word article - there's simply not enough room to mention anything technical.  Some of the good writers out there are also FORMER WATCHPROSITE ALUMNI!  SJX, Jack Forster at Hodinkee, and a few more are out there!  

At the end of the day, we need to know our strengths and our weaknesses.  WatchProSite is the only website that caters to the most knowledgeable group of watch individuals on the internet.  We know it!  And we thank all of you, our readers for it!  The readership on WPS are those who really love watches and have the deepest understanding of the details of the mechanics among virtually all the websites out there - especially ones with a discussion forum.  But we have some weaknesses too, and I think we know enough of them to keep us busy.  All in all, the moderator team here on WPS loves what we do and we feel we enjoy watches so much that we want to help others enjoy horology more too!  Thanks again for your post!  

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