WATCHPRO.com welcomed 516,330 unique visitors in the past month, setting a new record thanks to a dramatic rise in interest in watches that was ignited during the first lock down in 2020.
The separate website, USA.WATCHPRO.com, received 156,247 unique users during the same period, taking the total to over 672,000 visitors.
The global site, WATCHPRO.com, notched up 1,556,961 page views in the month.
Hysteria surrounding the launch of the Swatch x Omega MoonSwatch generated more traffic than any other story in the 12-year history of WATCHPRO.
Top story Swatch says customers will be able to buy all the MoonSwatch watches they wish was read by 392,484 people.
Our first hand account of buying and owning the elusive bioceramic timepiece was second in the rankings. MOONSWATCH REVIEW: How I bought a MoonSwatch and was the battle to buy it worth the risk? was read by 230,223 people.
The month’s news agenda was not entirely dominated by a £207 Swatch.
A column by Robin Swithinbank probing whether Patek Philippe has kept pace with a rapidly changing luxury watch world was also among the most popular with 83,057 reading his piece, The Patek Philippe Paradox.
“WATCHPRO.com’s combination of fast-paced news reporting, in-depth analysis and hard hitting columns appears to be connecting with a global audience looking for an island unbiased editorial in an ocean of reverence and sycophancy from too much of the watch media,” suggests WATCHPRO co-founder and editor Rob Corder.
“Our views may not always be popular, and they are sometimes proved to be wrong over time, but they are sincerely held and expressed. In an era of social media, people want that sort of authentic voice from an authority like WATCHPRO,” Mr Corder adds.
I’d love to see more pieces focusing on the big brands’ response to ongoing aggressive advertising despite lack of availability in the market. Have the big names like Rolex, Patek, AP, and VC become bait-and-switch brands for authorized dealers? How do these brand intend to attract a new and younger consumer base when they aren’t available and one can’t ever get a straight answer on availability? How do these brands intend to combat the secondary market for their pieces? As a new enthusiast, the current state of the market has caused the hobby to lose its appeal. Why should I as a watch collector continue to invest my time, money, and attention into these brands when they’re perpetually unavailable?
I continually put these questions to the big brands and their retail partners. In the absence of straight answers, I try to build up a picture for regular readers over time. Hang in there with the hobby. The more you learn, the less you realise you know.