Look, this affects me not at all because I'm not in the market at the moment, but I've been reading a lot of grumpiness here and on Reddit about these sales. Obviously not a representative sample of the overall population. Anyway, here's my hot take:

For a company who drives the vast majority of its business through e-commerce, Christopher Ward is not very good at e-commerce. Their twice-annual sales strategy could work if they had better email workflows and if their site could handle the constant churn caused by having one-off listings for many models. As it stands, though, you get to a search page that is populated with a ton of (null) listings if you get the email with the link at all, and you are performing the digital equivalent of wrenching a watch out of somebody's hands (or having them do that to you) for anything mildly interesting.

Other brands just list their B-stock perennially. Sure it's not as exciting as waiting with bated breath for sales twice a year, but it does cut down on the complaints. These sales last weeks already anyway because they have an unpopular model they're trying to sell that nobody wants.

NationOfLaws wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 9:42 pm Look, this affects me not at all because I'm not in the market at the moment, but I've been reading a lot of grumpiness here and on Reddit about these sales. Obviously not a representative sample of the overall population. Anyway, here's my hot take:

For a company who drives the vast majority of its business through e-commerce, Christopher Ward is not very good at e-commerce. Their twice-annual sales strategy could work if they had better email workflows0 and if their site could handle the constant churn caused by having one-off listings for many models. As it stands, though, you get to a search page that is populated with a ton of (null) listings if you get the email with the link at all, and you are performing the digital equivalent of wrenching a watch out of somebody's hands (or having them do that to you) for anything mildly interesting.

Other brands just list their B-stock perennially. Sure it's not as exciting as waiting with bated breath for sales twice a year, but it does cut down on the complaints. These sales last weeks already anyway because they have an unpopular model they're trying to sell that nobody wants.

You’ve hit the nail on the head! Perfect summary. I got the email really late but was unfazed by it because I’ve learned to expect that. I did what I always do - came here for the link. But as you point out so succinctly, it shouldn’t work that way.

HAYQ wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 8:28 pm

Macdaz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 8:17 pm I did get the email at 1500 on the dot, but I found the unhidden page myself about an hour before that. It was all over Facebook long before the emails went out. I was surprised to see some Bel Canto's and Lumiere's available, but not surprised at the speed they disappeared!

Nothing for me this time. Nothing new released that I like since the original Dune release so I was just sitting back watching the fun!

that`s so strange. why would they announce the link on Facebook so early ?
and where on Facebook did you find it? good to know for next time

They didn’t announce it, it was people like me who found it and then posted that they had on Facebook so other people, then found it. There are a couple, of groups -CW enthusiasts, which is a great group (many of us are members here and there) It’s a broad church which is centred around CW but covers a lot more. And there is CW aficionados which is CW only. I’d recommend both.

I find Facebook is quicker, but the forum is deeper in terms of information. I like both!

Macdaz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 12:07 am

HAYQ wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 8:28 pm

Macdaz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 8:17 pm I did get the email at 1500 on the dot, but I found the unhidden page myself about an hour before that. It was all over Facebook long before the emails went out. I was surprised to see some Bel Canto's and Lumiere's available, but not surprised at the speed they disappeared!

Nothing for me this time. Nothing new released that I like since the original Dune release so I was just sitting back watching the fun!

that`s so strange. why would they announce the link on Facebook so early ?
and where on Facebook did you find it? good to know for next time

They didn’t announce it, it was people like me who found it and then posted that they had on Facebook so other people, then found it. There are a couple, of groups -CW enthusiasts, which is a great group (many of us are members here and there) It’s a broad church which is centred around CW but covers a lot more. And there is CW aficionados which is CW only. I’d recommend both.

I find Facebook is quicker, but the forum is deeper in terms of information. I like both!

So could you share the name of those Fb groups you´d recommend to join?

I got the email at at 3:02pm. The only problem is that it was at 3:02pm Pacific Standard time, 8 hours after the 3 pm GMT kickoff. I guess because I live in Oregon, their computer system couldn't figure out the difference between GMT and PST. Oh well, at least I won't have to worry about explaining to the wife why I bought a used watch for lots of pennies

mvlow wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 12:34 am I got the email at at 3:02pm. The only problem is that it was at 3:02pm Pacific Standard time, 8 hours after the 3 pm GMT kickoff. I guess because I live in Oregon, their computer system couldn't figure out the difference between GMT and PST. Oh well, at least I won't have to worry about explaining to the wife why I bought a used watch for lots of pennies

Ha… I received my email at 3pm ET, about 5 hours after the preview was supposed to start. Yes, they might have had a time zone issue with the emails!

No worries for me though because I was refreshing the forum all morning. I accessed the sale at 2:40PM GMT, 20 minutes before it was supposed to even start, and I was STILL beat to the one item I was wanting. I’m not really surprised and not too fussed about it though.

Now personally I'm a bit of a Doris Day about this: Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). So if I had or hadn't received the link on time I'd have just moved on. The sales link was also pretty abundantly available; it was a link posted here that I used to access the sale ahead of time. Although admittedly I did receive the official link at 1 minute past the appointed time and I was able to snag a watch that I did want.

But whether I'm personally bothered or not about the system working, CWL do raise the expectations that loyal/previous customers will receive an early link to the sale, enabling them to have first dibs at the offers. And if it then doesn't work I can absolutely understand why it creates bad feeling. It would seem the complaints fall into five main issues:

1. Customers with purchase histories not receiving the signup link to begin with
2. Customers who did sign up not receiving the email link on time, if at all
3. The sales actually being available on the website prior to the appointed time, whether you had the link or not
4. The link being so widely available (I read on CWE it was on some "HotUKDeals" website) that the email signup is redundant anyway
5. Sold stock not being removed from the website quick enough

Now I'm not an expert in any of this, am almost certainly over-simplifying, and am happy to be told that I'm talking nonsense, but it would seem to me, based on usage of other websites, that none of the above is really that difficult. Points 1 and 2 are just distribution list management. Point 3 is also managed by other (smaller) companies equally as well e.g., I don't recall Studio Underd0g ever having issues with their defined pre-order windows. Point 4 is a difficult one as you can't prevent people putting things on the internet, but at least an access code or something might help a bit? Point 5 I would imagine is website/stock integration which surely is quite commonplace.

I agree with @NationOfLaws that if you can't get it right, just don't have a sale at all. It seems that something that should be a big positive creates a lot of ill feeling. Though with the amount of stock that seems to be have been shifted in such a short period, maybe the rush this feeling of being a 'lucky one' creates is actually working...?

And now, with apologies to David Essex:

It was only a winter sale
Just another winter sale
And it seems that the world has noticed
That the email link has failed
“In stock” that could never be
Of the Sealander C63
On a Ward-wide scale it’s just another winter sale

^^^ very good!

nycWATCHnerd wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 3:46 am They are creating FOMO by only having a sale twice a year which encourages people to purchase stuff they may not have otherwise purchased.

That’s a really good point! I never thought of the twice are years sales as creating that kind of drive in people. While I’ve never bought a watch in the sale, I have on occasion come close to shopping the sale versus the watch for the very reason you mention - FOMO.

jkbarnes wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 3:58 am

nycWATCHnerd wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 3:46 am They are creating FOMO by only having a sale twice a year which encourages people to purchase stuff they may not have otherwise purchased.

That’s a really good point! I never thought of the twice are years sales as creating that kind of drive in people. While I’ve never bought a watch in the sale, I have on occasion come close to shopping the sale versus the watch for the very reason you mention - FOMO.

Or just historically some people just won’t pay rrp and know to wait