Interview with Watchuseek Founder Ernie Romers

Ernie Romers is the founder and former owner of Watchuseek.com, the world’s most visit watch forum. Watchuseek has been the go-to forum for many watch enthusiasts for almost two decades. Through Watchuseek, Romers was able to share his knowledge and passion of watches with others. Watchuseek as recently been purchased from Romers, giving him time to focus his attention to other passions. Below, we catch up with Romers to discuss watches and what is keeping him busy.

Why watches? What led you to this passion?

Watches, among other things, have been my passion ever since I was young.

 

Tell us a little about Watchuseek – how did it get started?

One day my brother-in-law showed me two vintage watches he bought in Eastern Europe. A Raketa and a Universal Geneve. He also gave me a book about watches. It was then when I decided to look for watch information on the internet. I already built a webpage with links to all that I was interested in, but decided to redo it to watches only. Back in 1998 there was not as much information to be found, so I redesigned my webpage to a linkspage to watch news, information and brand websites. I added forums along the way. The rest is history.

 

What’s the greatest post you ever saw on Watchuseek?

Hard to tell. It’s been 16 and a half years I owned and worked on my website. There were many great posts, and it would not be fair to name just one of them.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about what you are doing now?

I’m still working as a teamleader on a school for children with special needs. Ever since I sold my website and forums I enjoy the free time I suddenly experienced. No more (extra) working early in the morning, late in the evening, in the weekends, on holidays, etc.

 

Where do you think the watch industry will be in 10 years?

Tough question. It is a fact that younger people use their smart phones to tell the time. They might or might not be interested in the new smart watches, but fact is that Pebble is selling like crazy. I’m pretty sure the new Apple watch will also be a hit. But smart watches (I still see htem as gadgets that need to be charged all the time) will not replace the current and future producing of (quartz and) mechanical watches.

 

What is the most innovative watch brand out there?

Sorry, but I cannot name just one, but if I had to, I’d probably say HYT. But that wouldn’t do justice to brands like MB&F, Urwerk, Breva and others. I’m still amazed by what some brilliant people think of to build a radical new watch.

 

Is there a lesser known brand you think we should keep our eye out for?

Watchuseek is also focusing on the micro brands and I believe it will continue to do so. Like the previous question it is hard to name just one brand. The other thing is, what is a current lesser known brand? The internet is so powerful, like Watchuseek is, to push any brand to the world to know in the shortest way of time. A brand like Pinion is a good example of that.

 

Tell us about your personal watch collection? Do you have a favorite?

During all these years I built my watch collection from Stowa, DOXA, Oris to IWC, Bremont and Jaeger-LeCoultre. I do not own many watches anymore, I sold quite a few already, because I wasn’t wearing them that much anymore. Wrist time is an indicator for me. Some watches I bought many years ago had a smaller diameter, and I couldn’t get used to them anymore. I did keep my Jaeger-LeCoultre and will most likely never sell it.

What is your grail watch?

Ouch, that is perhaps THE most difficult question to answer. There are too many grail watches out there! Being a Dutch man, I would answer: Grönefeld Parallax Tourbillon. But I would have to sell my house and go live in a cardboard box to be able to pay for it.

 

Thanks to Ernie Romers, founder of Watchuseek, for taking the time to participate in this interview.