Important information

After a time out of 24 hours, I have decided to write this post. Although being a member from the start of the IWC Forum, I decided to leave the English Forum in November 2008. The reason for that had nothing to do with the content of the Forum and its fine Forum members of which many are personal friends for life. The reason was a too tight moderation, at least in my view, leading to the deletion of posts and personal "correcting" emails. Being adults, Europeans have difficulties to be addressed as persons who should know how to behave and how to stick to the the rules of IWC's moderation,strange enough determined by one person. My frustration of those days is best transferred by "Macstevie" in German and I regret that his post cannot be understood by many English native speakers.
After stepping into the German Forum, I felt relieved and all of my contributions and comments were left untouched. I thank Alexander Linz for that. And my Forum fellowers, who liked the contributins.
From an economical point of view I understand that IWC closes the German Forum. We must be honest and admit that the contributions were declining over the years.In contrast to what some collectors think,it is absolutely clear that IWC collectors do not play any role in the sales figures of IWC, even if one counts 100 million people in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. However, should economical reasons play a major role, while it is known that most if the know-how and historical information is mastered by the German and French IWC Archives and German speaking collectors with the exception of Greg Steer, Alan Myers and Michael Friedberg. And is IWC not the watch company that proudly uses its past achievements to create and launch new time pieces every year?
The way IWC scratches the German Forum from the list, without permitting its members to react, without access to nor comment from Alexander Linz is rude, unbelievable and very un-European. Amazing is further to me that the English Forumers welcome their German speaking colleagues, but that none of them states : what the hell is going on? This is wrong!
After a few weeks the fuzz and the storm will calm down. What will be next?
I myself would like to continue to be a Forum member (not Chinese, sorry) and to post the results of my passion, my hobby and my research : IWC!
I sincerely hope that such is possible in the English speaking Forum, maybe in a litlle bit more liberal environment with understanding from both sides of the Atlantic that we are different in ethics, education and views, but that among many things that we have in common, there is one outstanding : IWC.
Kind regards,
Adrian van der Meijden,
(alwaysiwc).

Thanks Andrew,

you focus the actual situation straight ahead :-)

"to all newcomers"

Sorry, totally out of context, I know. But a good example !

Greetings

Heiko

Adrian, I sincerely look forward to your contribution the continuation of an IWC Forum. Your contributions have been missed. As to the quote above, don't assume any of us know what was coming down the road. We read the announcement at the same time as you. We can't really comment on what is going on, right or wrong.

Like Andrew stated and I said in my thread here, I hope with the passing of time the furor settles down and we can all look forward to a bigger, better and accommodating place to share our passion and knowledge.

Auch wenn ich eher auf dem deutschen Forum gelesen als geschrieben habe, möchte ich hiermit solidarisch mit der Entrüstung einiger deutschen Uhrenfreunde erklären.

Die Entscheidung ist falsch und einer IWC nicht würdig.

Auch wenn man die neuen Kunden in Asien besser bedienen will, darf man nicht die traditionelle Kundschaft verprellen.

Sehr traurig.

"Global reach, local touch"

Simple is best, imho. "Collectors' Forum"

Thank you!

The two aspects are directly linked to each other: everything has to be smooth here. "No discussions please, just smile and wave. . . "

Not with me. I will not let my freedom of speech be trimmed. Polite, but direct and honest - that´s my way. Diversity brings lots of interesting new aspects with it.

International Watch Company: OK, the name of the brand is quite appropriate regarding the developments mentioned in this thread. But the recent history of ten years IWC forum has two languages, there is no way around it. I would find it very upsetting if the English Archive would be maintained, and the German Archive not. That would be very unfair to the efforts of many German speaking members of this forum, and a mutilation of history. So herewith I strongly support the effort of Michael to preserve the German Archive, it may be that Michael will need all the support he can get. I would say: Michael, go for it, no is not an option.

What to do with the German Archive? If it is preserved, it is the only non-English archive here: that the language is German is just a fact. I would like to ask one of the German speaking and writing members to start a "Tuesday's Tour of the German Archive" to preserve and show the rich content. Some archive digging lessons by Cellar would be needed, I guess. At least with such an initiative the German community could cope maybe with the harsh way they were treated. By the way, not being fluent in English is not only true for the German speaking community, at least that has never stopped me. With enough passion for IWC this may be a free opportunity to get better at English, which may come in handy later-on.

A bit off topic, but could the search function of this forum be improved in such a way that a layman can look for, and find, fairly easy what he tries to find? I quite often give up on it, as I am not prepared to read a lot of stuff I am not looking for, in the hope to find eventually what I like to find. The search function of the first forum software was by far the best.

Kind regards,
Paul

Ups, vor dem Kaufen muss ich erst Chinesisch lernen :-)

Really?

They do that in private Emails. Make an educated guess WHY, Adrian :=)
All the best
Hans

Hi Hans,

I don't question "what the hell is going on" - it's IWC guest house and if they choose to close the German guest house or the English one it is their decision.
They have made the decision for whatever reasons and we all have to live with it.

I suggest we look forward and make the best of things.

Cheers from the cellar

Absolutely agree. Let's make the best of it. This Forum is a privilege, not a right. Most watchmakers don't have a Forum at all. The Forum did not invent itself.

It's not about closing the forum (imo), but about the way that it's done.

IWC invited these forummembers themselves

Ok, so we're all stupid. Isn't "smile and wave" the behaviour of the stupid? It's ok with me but, when it comes to my friends and my Mod, well, it disturbs me a lot. What about a second chance to rephrase?

And we've also had the bad taste to say welcome...

You say "polite", sorry, I don't see any.

IWC sets the rules for participating in its forum, we're all guests here.

And, since we're speaking sincerely, I'm quite sick also to read comments about this supposed European sensitivity or whatever, opposed to the Eastern (maybe less evolved?) tastes; it sounds quite racist to me.

I wonder what's wrong with getting the opportunity to start talking watches all together in friendship and leave the rest behind.

Another option? Leave it.

I quite agree: one other perspective is, it's only watches, come on... I would say, give the moaning another day or so, it will settle down soon enough. And nothing beats looking at a new watch that is a true knock-out, at least here.

Kind regards,
Paul

Removing the German forum is a decision of IWC which is to be respected, it is only about the way as this has happened.

Regards from Vienna
Leon

Exactly my words.
Thank you Rob.