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cvalue13
·I feel the same way about CNN.
Does that make Bob’s Watches editorial MSNBC?
This craft we call writing: The Hodinkee house style
Does that make Bob’s Watches editorial MSNBC?
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kingsrider
·Does that make Bob’s Watches editorial MSNBC?
I think Bob's is more like QVC or Rick Tomaska.
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Dan S
·I have noticed that they are quite sensitive to any insinuation that their "editorial" (used with some discretion) and web retail businesses are absolutely fire walled. I tend to think they doth protest too much, in that regard, as I see the responses on Instagram and twitter.
I have a truly conflicted relationship with the site. I read it far too frequently for my own comfort. Some writers are better than others. Some articles are better composed than others. One writer in particular has a specific proclivity for overly trite phrases and "cuteness," and I admit to reading his pieces to only feed my own distaste.
I actually can't remember the last time I read an interesting or informative article on the Hodinkee site, and there are very few blogs or sites that I read regularly. I think that Fratello does have some good content. Not always 100% accurate, but pretty good overall, and I often enjoy the TBT blog posts.
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Andy K
·None of these blogs are proper "journalism" in the "writing of news" sense. They are written for enthusiasts, to promote and sell watches. It's marketing rather than news.
100% agree. The majority of watch blog content consists of glowing reviews designed to make people that own that watch or are considering buying one feel good about spending their money. They could easily swap out the name of one brand/model for any other and reuse the rest of the text for all these reviews.
The watch industry as a whole seems relatively impenetrable to actual journalism. The real journalists that cover the industry simply go to Baselworld, interview some execs in a controlled atmosphere to get company-approved quotes, and report aggregate numbers on units sold for the business section. There's almost never any well-sourced investigative pieces that would interest a consumer of the product, while everything is aimed at investors. For example, nobody's been able to say for sure what is going on with Rolex supply. If the equivalent was happening at Apple or any of hundreds of other global companies there'd be any number of investigations or even books on the topic, but all we get is a ton of posts about what a salesman at an AD told somebody that asked about a Daytona.
The most insidery stuff I can recall in recent years was about brands pulling out of Baselworld. These weren't scoops the journalists got through perseverance, these were leaks the brands put out that were self-serving, basically saying Baselworld was too expensive.
Edited:
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kingsrider
·For example, nobody's been able to say for sure what is going on with Rolex supply. If the equivalent was happening at Apple or any of hundreds of other global companies there'd be any number of investigations or even books on the topic, but all we get is a ton of posts about what a salesman at an AD told somebody that asked about a Daytona.
Exactly what I was thinking as I started to read your post.
Do you think Hodinkee would dare to ask the hard questions of Rolex?. I think not, too risky to their advertising revenue.
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cvalue13
·Exactly what I was thinking as I started to read your post.
Do you think Hodinkee would dare to ask to hard questions of Rolex?. I think not, too risky to their advertising revenue.
Funny you should mention this. I listened to a recent Hodinkee podcast (because they were discussing Omega's release of the 321 Ed White).
During that pod, Cara Berrett was discussing her New Year's resolutions RE watch writing. She noted her widely-read story of a few years ago RE investigative-ish journalism on a Paul Newman model, and in this new year felt she needed to find another such piece.
My immediate thought: seems pretty obvious the most burning, widely-discussed, topic in the Rolex watch world these days (which couldn't possibly be impenetrable to actual journalism) ...
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Andy K
·Do you think Hodinkee would dare to ask to hard questions of Rolex?. I think not, too risky to their advertising revenue.
But I agree with what you're getting at, they probably have more incentive to publish the party line than the truth.
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jsducote
·Actually that is quite interesting because I once found an on line interview with Ben Clymer where he addressed the point that his magazine used to be a scrappy blog for enthusiasts and they’re now essentially catering to a wealthier audience, and his reply was in substance, if your business it to talk about pieces of men’s jewelery which are both expensive and inessential, you cannot survive as a business if you don’t cater to the wealthy.
I was actually impressed how straightforward he was about it, and I thought «okay, fair enough».
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cimo
·Surely that's worse though, no? Someone with a demonstrated ability to string together words into coherent sentences with both style AND quality but actively chooses to do neither.
Whether this affects someone's perception of their content is an individual choice, I suppose.
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abrod520
·Ben Clymer has similarly impressed me in certain interviews or podcasts. As I understand it, he didn’t come from much, was in journalism school, and began blogging about watches on the side; my details are surely off, but that’s the general picture. A ‘scrappy’ character who took a not insignificant risk, and devoted considerable effort, in turning his professional endeavors toward his love of watches. I find it hard to fault such a character. (He’s certainly not “a banker” as someone above implied.)
He went to journalism school on the side from his job at UBS on Wall Street.
I don't know what his background is, but he certainly came from something - people who don't come from much don't get Speedmasters from their grandfathers.
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Stufflers Mom
·Except she was hit by a T-shirt from a T-shirt cannon.
Her husband Ned was devastated at her passing.
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cvalue13
·He went to journalism school on the side from his job at UBS on Wall Street.
I don't know what his background is, but he certainly came from something - people who don't come from much don't get Speedmasters from their grandfathers.
Very fair - never intended to paint him as a model bootstrapper
