Hans Interview - The man behind the CW Forum

[Kip]

After realizing how much pleasure the CW forum brings to me, I thought it might be good to know a little more about the man who created this forum. What follows is a brief interview with Hans who graciously consented to answering a few questions I put forth. I hope you enjoy the content, complete and unedited.

A hearty Thank You Hans for taking the time to answer the questions.

> Tell us.. who are you?

I'm Hans, 38 years old, married with my lovely wife, and we have two sons (8 and 10 years old). I work as an IT-professional and have been living and working in The Netherlands for all my life. Apart from my family my passions are: watches, photography and literature.

> Have you done any watchmaking yourself?

Yes, after investigating this subject for some time on the internet, I took two TimeZone watchmaking-courses. After following these courses, and practicing on old movements I can now perform the most basic watch-making operations but I am definitely not a watchmaker, not even close!

> What was your inspiration for starting this forum?

My C5! I read about the C5 on TimeZone, it got me curious how it could be possible for a BP. 99,- watch to receive such a positive review by a senior TimeZone-member, and bought it. I immediately fell in love with the watch and wanted to share the fun. I also remember sending an email to Chris giving him my compliments for the C5, never expecting any response, but I was surprised by an elaborate and kind return-email.

> Do you remember what first triggered the idea?

At the same time I was studying the PHP computer scripting-language out of professional interest, and I experimented a bit with forum-software based on PHP (phpBB) just for fun. When I wanted to test some php-modifications on my test-forum I needed content to experiment with, and it probably won't come to you as a surprise that CW was the first that came into mind!

> How did the association with CWL come about?

I registered a free domain: http://www.christopherward.nl.eu.org (some of the old gang might remember that!), and put the CW-forum online on my own server at home without notifying Chris! That was on December 11 2005, a few days later Chris had found the forum himself and send me an email (Chris registered on 31 December 2005 as you can see in the memberlist). I was afraid he would ask me to immediately remove the forum or something like that, but he was very kind, appreciated my efforts and gave me complete freedom to do what I wanted with the forum.

> How much work is involved for you administering this forum? Time involved?

That varies a bit, there are three different moderation tasks for me:

- technical moderation like upgrades, pro-active checks, backups, optimization, etc.
- content moderation, forum-members behave superbly, but there are a lot of evil spammers that need to be prevented or removed from time to time (hopefully most spam is removed before you guys even notice it)
- answering personal messages and emails with questions (I get a lot of questions, I try my best to answer them all, but don't hesitate to remind me if i don't respond )

In general, my estimate is that I spend between 15-20 hrs per month on moderating the forum. But for extra activities like major upgrades, and the Forum LE a lot of extra time is needed.


> Anything that you would have done differently? Anything you would like to change now?

I'm pretty pleased with the way things are setup now, I know there is always room for improvement and I am always open for suggestions. Currently I'm working on a few small improvements, one of them being an optional CW-watch counter placed under the users rank-indicator. (Kip's idea)

> What is your ultimate vision for the forum?

Total world-domination, becoming the new TimeZone. Just kidding, I started this forum to share my enthusiasm and positive experiences with CW-watches, and hoped people would join in and experience the same. That is what happened, and the forum has been growing steadily since the start. In the first months after the start the forum received only 20 or 30 visits a day, currently there are days when there are more then 600 visits per day. If you would plot a graph of the forum-visits it would display a slow but very stable growth, and I enjoy that a lot. When compared with other (watch)-fora this forum is still very small, but for me that is part of the charm.

> Did CW approve in the beginning?

Yes he did, he liked the idea and appreciated my enthusiasm.

> Does he approve now?

Yes, Chris still approves. Obviously the forum helps a bit spreading the word, which is good for the company. But don't forget, there are sometimes negative reactions or opinions; I would like to thank Chris for the fact that he has never, ever, intervened with the content on this forum, or asked me to remove some post or edit a line or what ever. He has never done that.

> Is it difficult to keep the idea up front that this is an independent forum?

Sometimes that is difficult, and I can understand why. The CW-company is obviously benefiting from this forum, and there are other watch-brands who run their own forum (with their own moderation obviously). Also there is a link from the official CW-website to this forum. But this forum started independent, and still is. If I buy a CW-watch, and I don't like it, I promise you that I will post this in my review of the watch! Also I have never removed a negative post or comment and will never do so) On the other hand, you have to realize that on the home-page there is a CW-banner, if people buy a CW-watch by clicking that banner from my forum I receive a small fee. Also you will have noticed the google-ads, each click on them and I receive (a tiny piece ) of money. But running this forum on a hosted server with the network-bandwidth and extra facilities like offsite backup cost me money which I don't mind because every hobby costs money, but it's great to compensate the costs a bit, so thank you to all who visit the sponsors from time to time

> How open and how often do you communicate with CW?

I have an open and pleasant communication with Chris, mostly via email. He is very busy making watches and planning stuff, so I also experience small delays in response from time to time. Mostly those mails are about new plans, the possibility for sneak-previews and stuff like that.

> Have you ever broken bread with CW?

No, I have never actually met Chris in person! After all the email-correspondence I have the feeling I know him quite a bit, but I really would like to meet him in person some day! Maybe we can organize a forum-visit to CW headquarters someday!! Maybe to pick up our next Forum-limited in person! That would be great wouldn't it?

> Do you have his ear and/or does he ever comment to you about the forum?

I know Chris is a frequent visitor of the forum, and that is no secret, anybody can look him up in the member-list and check when his last visit was. Usually he visits once a week to catch up with developments. We talk about topics that live in the forum, but as I said before he has never tried to interfere with the content. That's the way Chris wants it also, and that's why he has never posted in the forum! But I believe a lot of you have noticed Chris really listen to our comments and uses our ideas when possible. There are lots of examples, the best one probably being the C4 Terminator collection. Terminator is a CW-forum member who came with the idea of the two-toned C4!

> We know CW reads the forum and at times is influenced by the feedback. Do you feel that you personally have any influence with CW? If yes, how so?

I know I have influence with CW, as he is very open for ideas, but I don't think I have really more influence then the next CW-Forum member.

> I have noticed that you don't post lately as often as you used to. Is it because you no longer feel the need to because of so many members now, or you just don't have the time?

As I have mentioned earlier in this interview, moderating this forum takes quite some time. Actively participating takes even more time, I enjoy that a lot, but sometimes there are so many other things going on like family and business. So my active participation comes with ups-and-downs, currently I am very busy with my professional work, leaving less free-time, but that will change in the near future.

> What type/style watches are your favorites and what do you wish CWL would come up with?

I like dress-watches, and watches with a more sportive look, but not too sporty. The C4 is too much for my personal taste, my favorites are the C1, C3, C5 and C6. Or in terms of other brands: watches like the Roles GMT, Sinn EZM and Stowa Marine Original. I really like CW's latest designs (C8, C13, C15), and hope CW continues in this direction. I greatly prefer automatic/mechanical movements, so I hope we will see some new developments on that subject also.

> What watches do you currently own? What is your favorite if money is no object?

In my current collection are a Rolex GMT II, Fortis Flieger, Revue Thommen Airspeed XLarge, Nomos Tangomat, Seiko Diver, Stowa Marine Original, Sinn EZM and my CW's: C5 black, C5 white, Aviator, Kingfisher Forum LE, yello Kingfisher, C1 white. Lately the white C5 and Forum LE have been getting a lot of wrist-time. If money would be no object, I'd go for the Patek Philippe Annual Calendar (Eur. 25.700), Jaeger-le Coultre Master Calendar (Eur. 11.700) or a Glashutte Original Senator weekindicator (Eur. 11.750)
Hans
The Administrator

[Daz]

[Russ-Shettle]

Thanks Kip,

Now I know who Hans is. I thought he worked for CW directly and answered all his PR questions for the company. It makes me happy to know that Hans was inspired by the product which says even more about the watch I own now, my C5! And your watch too.

Russ

[Nico]

Thank you very much, great interview!

Nico

[EcosseOz]

I really enjoyed reading that. It was a great insight into the background of the CW Forum.

Thanks and long may this forum (and CW watches) continue

[Russ-Shettle]

Hans,

You're the "MAN"! CW should give you a free watch.