zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

I write articles for 15 years professionaly. Believe me, if I wanted to praise some product, I can do it in several ways, and none of them would ever be noticed by readers. It is a fact.

Second, do you think magazines exist for readers? You think magazines live from their readers? Both are wrong: readers are just an aliby to sell adds. That holds true for most magazines, reardles of country.

: Watchtime would risk their integrity by
: "selling out" as you seem to be
: implying they are, also if you do read the

I do not say they sold out. I said they might be influenced. Try to think how often they print sentence: "this is pure rubbish" and "...is not worth its price". Probably never, or hardly ever! Right. Do you really believe every watch they review is absolutly worth its price? You are either very rich or very naive. And that holds for Rolex much more for any other brand. Mass produced movement - not even serial production and with term "manufacture" there is not a bit of similarity!

Experience tells me: when you print something your advertiser does not like, tommorow, you have calls made from advertiser, yelling out to cancel adds. You might not know this fact: most magazines make their living solely from advertisements, not from sales. Sales contribute to earnings only on magazines with highest ciculations (and typically daily or weekly isuues).

: latest Rolex review of the white gold Day
: Date they are highly critical yet still
: manage to say it is a well built watch and
: worth the money.

That is exactly how I would do it to preserve apperance of my integrity: I wiould stress minor minus points readers would be happy to ignore, but I would include them.

Who can tell you how much journalist knows what it is writing about? Please, do not assume journalists are experts. Just because they do get published. Very few are. By the way, how do you know author has not recieved such watch as "gift" from company producing it (applies to every watch, every company, every article)? Do not assume all journalists are experts and honest. And this especially applies to smaller magazines with smaller circualtions.

I can not say if any foul play could be implied here since I had not chance to see movement in question or the article. I am just saying readers should have mind of their own, and good journalist will always stress that in his/her article. Journalist should not give finsihed conclusions, but enough facts and evidence so that the reader can make his/her mind.

Unfortunatelly, I can not get any watch magazines in Croatia. Are there any photographies of movements in that test? In Walt Oddets article anyone can see what he describes. That is why readers tend to believe this article. I do not say all Rolexes are made this way, but, Rolex is mass produced watch, they do not have neither time nor the man power for detailes. What engine pops out must work, and it works reliably (except for auto winding which is obviously bad design and is prone to slipping out due to jewel holding two things. Engine pops out e.g. Valjoux 7750 and it works great, but it does not cost unbelivingly more than it is worth as Rolexes do.

: In other magazines, such as Motor trend and Car
: and Driver, both constantly put out reviews
: which are not very favorable to Ford and
: Chevy, yet both of these companies put in
: numerous ads....

Somehwere before in this answer, I said that magazines with very big circulation are more independant. When testing cars, you can easily be very objective and no one can deny your minuses to some product. Also, not very favourable does not mean bad.

: If anything I think it is safer to assume that
: Dr. Odets had more personal bias than any
: magazine due to financial influence. And

Ignore his text, just look his pictures. Make your own comment. Get me some pictures of Rolex movements that will prove Walt Odets wrong. I will be first to say his article does not apply to Rolex movements whose pictures prove othervise.

: just wondering by your question that since
: you are a journalist if you constantly pad
: articles because your editor tells you to???
: very ethical if you ask me.

I do not think my articles are problematic here :) I think problem here lies in the hands of the peoplw who wish to find justification for their grossly overpriced watch and are desperate to find anything supportintg their wishes.

Whichever watch makes someone happy, is good choice for him. But, no one should therefore laim their watch is better than any other. Expecially when his manufacture produces 900000 watches a year. Even if this manufacture was in China, it could not produce by hand that man watches. Lets not be naive.