https://www.hodinkee.com/ I am starting to wonder if Hodinkee is not the inspiration they were once thought to be. Their content, at times can be interesting, but I can not help feeling as I watch interviews of celebrities with their gaudy watch collections and view their overpriced watch board, that the site is becoming an elitist Barney's of New York. This is the kind of article that got me interested in the site in the first place. http://hodinkee.squarespace.com/blog/2008/10/16/1968-omega-chronostop-one-button.html https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/t...hould-be-more-expensive-than-they-are-and-why
I agree, I seldom look at it anymore. I much preferred it 5-6 years ago when it was just a small informative watch blog and not a brand. I get the feeling now it's all about selling merchandise and raking in the Benjamins $$$$$$$!
Someone with too much money and time on their hands should hire a couple of Onion writers and start a mirror site called Hoodwinkee
Definitely not cool anymore. More power to them for profiting on it, but I never click there anymore.
4-5 years ago I would get on there daily. Now I rarely see any reason at all to visit the site. The reviews seem bias and most of the content is focused on such high end pieces that it excludes me from caring. If there were more content like the OP referenced above it would be worth visiting from time to time.
From the chronostop article: "...his is selling for around $5,000 which to us does seem a tad high, and by tad we mean very very high. We would like to see this in the $1,000 range....but keep in mind this seller is in the UK, which could account for SOME of the higher price. " Do you think they hired the guy that was selling the choronostop to help them price stuff?
Are they today promoting a tropical lollipop speedy that a lot of folks here have deemed questionable?
I don't know about promotion, but they seem taken with it to say the least, and of course there has been a lot of "scouring" going on. Quote from the article; "Furthermore, the seller offers a very advanced description of his watch (notably explaining the early bezel), proving that he is himself a Speedy enthusiast."
Too me its more of a website navigation problem. The website is just not friendly to use anymore. When they had a lower volume of stories it worked fine. Now they are publishing to many stories for the way their website is set up. No longer is the newest story on top, instead they had a main story seemingly randomly chosen on top, with other suggested stories, some are new some are old and outdated information. In order to see all new stories you have to do alot of scrolling and get past old story suggestions, and advertising that takes up the same amount of vertical space in the navigation as stories. It is just not a pleasant place to navigate if you visit every few days, which leads to less and less visits. The commenting system is another huge issue, poorly moderated, and generally worthless to contribute to. This in turn provides less sense of community and less reason to come back. This is the kind of thing I do for a living and their website while pretty looking at first glance and seems attractive to advertisers, is a nightmare for reader retention. This seems to be reflected when I look at their website view statistics, based on my recollection of their website redesign and offset by external drivers to their site.
the merger with watchville has given them more commercial capabilities. i prefer the earlier times when they were a simple blog, but i still visit them weekly. today's endorsement of the 2998-2 was a disappointment.
Rarely go there anymore. Good on them for getting big and making a living out of it but, you can't begrudge them that even if you don't agree with or like the site.
I blame them, the 'Hoodwinkie' hipsters, for pushing up the price of the 5513 to almost double in five years. Review as rare and desirable (whether it is or not) then sell the piece on your own website. Good business model - for them.