General Banter and Random Musings

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Jazzydrury said:
To me a watch a watch, especially as I have issues telling the time anyway.
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Probably same for most of the population, but obviously for different reasons. That's why i mentioned the differences if you're an everyday watch user just wanting a nice looking watch to tell the time and if you collect watches, selly telly aims/claims to cater for both, but both need to be provided with different levels information/technical details about the watches, for me selly telly only really provide enough detail to cover the everyday "watch is watch" user like yourself, most of them certainly don't provide near enough relevant details if you're a collector.
 
Jazzydrury said:
If you wanted a Luxury Watch wouldn’t you go to a posh shop, than a shopping channel
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This is a great point. I wouldn't buy anything of genuine quality/luxury from IW even if the price was great. Their whole ethos to selling puts me off buying anything from them as a point of principle.
 
Hammy60 said:
That is very important and sadly lacking on selly telly, one thing that really annoys me is the use of the word "Luxury" in describing watches (and lots of other products) on selly telly, it is bandied about like there is no tomorrow. Over the last 6/7 years i've seen very few watches on selly telly deserving of such a description, the closest in recent year, which would best be described as a basic watch to entry level luxury watch brands, would be Roamer (oops mentioned them again:ROFLMAO:) especially for their Searock amd maybe the higher end Mathey-Tissot, but the rest nope sorry, just a mix of decent to good quality dive/tool watches (i would good quality dive/tool watches to describe Traser/Vostok Europe) or overpriced luxury junk from baby & papa.

Yeah the most important thing at the end of the day is a watch is a watch, whether it's £10,000 or £10 and will serve the purpose it's meant to do tell time, some a lot longer than others, but most decent quality watches (even in the affordable bracket) if looked after will have longevity. Obviously some watches are better quality than others, whether that is in the quality of the materials used, movements, watchmakers skills, quality control etc and that usually shows in the price, but price can also be affected by brand appeal, status, reputation, history, heritage etc.
There's a lot watches on selly telly that are decent quality but there's some right overpriced nasty looking junk, even £40 Alibaba watches are better, but as i said, on the whole decent affordable watches.
Where the problem comes in, as you've stated, is the erroneous marketing and sales patter, not just from the presenters/guests but the brands themselves. Reynolds is one of the better ones out of all the presenters and guests for giving technical details, although he does come out with some faux pas at times, obviously not as knowledgeable in watches as he sometimes alludes too, but hey none of us know it all. But some of the rest of the presenters/guests are just out and out shysters, peddling a mix of irrelevent stories, misinformation and ouright lies or in some cases they are just totally ignorant about watches and come out with some utter rubbish, if they are selling alledgedly luxury items then they really should be clued up on them, at the very least the basics. There is nothing more farcical than listening to presenter, selling a Christophe Duchamp watch, whittering on about how Christophe moved his watch factory from Switzerland and he has now set up his headquarters and factory in the UK. Would be a great story if Christophe Duchamp was an actual person and the story was true, but unfortunately for the presenter Chris doesn't exists and neither did his Swiss factory nor did it move to the UK. :ROFLMAO:

If you're just a viewer just buying a watch to use as an everyday watch or maybe a present then you're probably not going to need to much info on a watch, oh it looks nice that'll do me :ROFLMAO:, but if you're a watch collector the things you would want to know, well i do anyway, if possible, when buying a watch is:-

Brand - Who they are, who the current owner of the brand is, where they are located, not some story about a defuct brand that has absolutely no connection or relevence to the present day brand.

On the watch itself

1.Who assembled it - Is it by the brand itself or a 3rd party watchmaker and if so who.
2.Where it's assembled/made - Country of origin
3.Materials used in the construction case, crystal and strap/bracelet.
4.Dimensions - not just case width, but height/depth, lug to lug, lug width etc. Lug to lug is especially important on selly telly given their love for selling big, big watches.
5.Movement in the watch - saying it's auto or quartz, Swiss, Japanese or not mentioning origin if it's Chinese doesn't cut it, need to be informed of the make and caliber of the movement, big difference in price and qaulity of movements even from the same movement manufacturer.
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Hammy, your watch knowledge is awesome. I have thought this when reading through these threads because you clearly are a collector and know your stuff. I know nothing really about watches as it’s never been a item that has interested me.
watches do well on shopping TV and in both Kevin and Jonathan I think we have two of the best who have the experience to describe, explain and give the merits behind why each timepiece is special.
But this dialogue between avid collectors and people who know there stuff on watches is also important. Equally from our point of view (as a guest) - if we don’t know what extra information you would like to know, then we fall into the same patter of telling the viewer everything we think you need and want to know.
Take the GX pillow. I love it, I sleep on it, I describe it.
I must have done hundreds of GX shows now because they sell, everytime.
I can talk about them in my sleep (sorry, bad pun!) but sometimes I get asked a question that I haven’t even thought of covering in my explanation and it freshens it up for me with the presentation of the product.

Your comments above about wanting to know more about the materials, the dimensions, lug to lug etc, I can pass on that information and see if it can be included.
it’s important that there is an open dialogue with our customers and viewers.
I said before there are many things we will disagree on and ultimately - we are a shop and we need to sell products to keep open. But I agree it’s how we do it and how we get that information correctly and honestly to our customers.
 
galesgal57 said:
My Dad insisted for years that we used Izal. I can still remember the smell of it.
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My dad did exactly the same. I remember one day trying to use a couple of sheets, fresh from the box, as tracing paper (we’d done sone tracing in ‘art’ at infant school). It took days to get rid of that smell. And the ink blotted and blurred. And went through the paper. Even at the time i thought it was strange that the paper was so good at absorbing ink, and yet when used for its ‘primary purpose’, it just kind of smeared everything about a bit!

Hideous stuff!
 
Alex Knowles said:
Hammy, your watch knowledge is awesome. I have thought this when reading through these threads because you clearly are a collector and know your stuff. I know nothing really about watches as it’s never been a item that has interested me.
watches do well on shopping TV and in both Kevin and Jonathan I think we have two of the best who have the experience to describe, explain and give the merits behind why each timepiece is special.
But this dialogue between avid collectors and people who know there stuff on watches is also important. Equally from our point of view (as a guest) - if we don’t know what extra information you would like to know, then we fall into the same patter of telling the viewer everything we think you need and want to know.
Take the GX pillow. I love it, I sleep on it, I describe it.
I must have done hundreds of GX shows now because they sell, everytime.
I can talk about them in my sleep (sorry, bad pun!) but sometimes I get asked a question that I haven’t even thought of covering in my explanation and it freshens it up for me with the presentation of the product.

Your comments above about wanting to know more about the materials, the dimensions, lug to lug etc, I can pass on that information and see if it can be included.
it’s important that there is an open dialogue with our customers and viewers.
I said before there are many things we will disagree on and ultimately - we are a shop and we need to sell products to keep open. But I agree it’s how we do it and how we get that information correctly and honestly to our customers.
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Hi Alex,

For me, it’s not so much that there’s extra i want to know, i just want to see less of the exaggeration, and the very dubious claims about provenance. Most of the watches sold on selly telly are fashion items. And made in China. There’s nothing wrong with either of those statements, but as a qualified watchmaker, i know that most are, essentially, economically (or actually) unrepairable, and the great majority won’t make it past their first service, if they ever actually get a service. To me, these could be sold as ‘a great look’. Or as ‘something that would go well with a particular outfit’. Or as ‘a feature-packed watch that offers a lot for the money’. You can, with care about which watches you choose to carry, justify all of that.
What I find very sad, is that many purchasers, on channels now gone, were trying to build collections of these things, as ‘heirlooms’ to pass on to their children. One poor soul had spent tens of thousands on what, i have to tell you, was an essentially worthless collection with a likely lifespan of 5 years or less.
If we can get away from the hyperbole, and be accurate about provenance, i think you could actually still sell as many, and possibly with repeat purchases for longer.
At any rate, I do accept you will get a high markup on them. Maybe ask yourself, occasionally, just WHY that might be?
 
cheeky chappie said:
This is a great point. I wouldn't buy anything of genuine quality/luxury from IW even if the price was great. Their whole ethos to selling puts me off buying anything from them as a point of principle.
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I would buy a luxury watch anywhere reputable if I already knew which watch/model I wanted and if it were at a value discount price.

So if I see a Valjoux 7750 or similar at a bargain price I'd buy from TkMaxx, IW, TJC or anywhere safe!

A bit like walking into a car dealership and saying I want that one, having already researched/test- driven the car and found the best available price.
 
Professor Branestawm said:
Hi Alex,

For me, it’s not so much that there’s extra i want to know, i just want to see less of the exaggeration, and the very dubious claims about provenance. Most of the watches sold on selly telly are fashion items. And made in China. There’s nothing wrong with either of those statements, but as a qualified watchmaker, i know that most are, essentially, economically (or actually) unrepairable, and the great majority won’t make it past their first service, if they ever actually get a service. To me, these could be sold as ‘a great look’. Or as ‘something that would go well with a particular outfit’. Or as ‘a feature-packed watch that offers a lot for the money’. You can, with care about which watches you choose to carry, justify all of that.
What I find very sad, is that many purchasers, on channels now gone, were trying to build collections of these things, as ‘heirlooms’ to pass on to their children. One poor soul had spent tens of thousands on what, i have to tell you, was an essentially worthless collection with a likely lifespan of 5 years or less.
If we can get away from the hyperbole, and be accurate about provenance, i think you could actually still sell as many, and possibly with repeat purchases for longer.
At any rate, I do accept you will get a high markup on them. Maybe ask yourself, occasionally, just WHY that might be?
Click to expand...
Ok - let me come back on this next week when I’m back in the studio :)
 
PhaedrusR said:
I would buy a luxury watch anywhere reputable if I already knew which watch/model I wanted and if it were at a value discount price.

So if I see a Valjoux 7750 or similar at a bargain price I'd buy from TkMaxx, IW, TJC or anywhere safe!

A bit like walking into a car dealership and saying I want that one, having already researched/test- driven the car and found the best available price.
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tbh when it comes to more practical things e.g. a vacuum cleaner, if I saw a genuine bargain then I might have a buy. Although so far after 20+ years of watching I've managed to buy nowt ;)

However when it comes to objects such as watches, I wouldn't buy from them no matter how good the deal.
 

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