WatchGeeks 2.0?
May 20, 2010
SOMETHING interesting showed up in the betterskills inbox last week. I have not been able to validate the authenticity but if real, it would suggest an evolution of the WatchGeeks community to more of a social network – watchgeeks.ning.com.
For the record – I’m thinking hoax. But if legit, it would make a lot of sense. Over the past few months there have been a steady increase of members who only seem to join so that they can bitch about poor Invicta quality and CS, from the Dive Kit Screws and case mold to the latest Reserve Speedway plagued with complaints. It’s like one fail after another with the established geeks trying to arguing over legit complaints. A social network model would effectively lower the public visibility of all the complaints but could also serve to take the decent underground and possibly less easy to control. But if it’s a numbers game you’re concerned with and you could keep the new member level high, you could, on the surface, cover up a lot of these boils and sores.
I’ll keep watching it as the 9 month date of Jim Skelton’s contract approaches, which I’ve been told is the possible duration of a SNBC contract if not inked for 12 months.
Speaking of XOSkelton slowly being eased out – how about Avi Vierra showing up on the debut of XOSKELETON as their apparent Technical Brand Manager! Funny because I suggested her several months back. She’s the perfect transition from Skelton – I’d much rather look at Beauty than the Beast!
Poor Tools Require Better Skills 
May 20, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Makes sense. The entire WG concept has failed; a site bought into by Invicta to promote their products only invites proof that product after product, item after item, promotion after promotion on ShopNBC is pure, unfettered garbage. Then add that fact that ShopNBC shipping is hopelessly inept; pile on the fact that if you get a broken watch and send it back to Invicta, you’ll get back the same broken watch. Then came the plastic box lawsuit. This latest Speedway debacle proves Invicta is only, as one other person astutely noted here, a glorified drug store brand. Can’t the BBB or FTC get involved with this?
Yet, there the mokes and monkeys are; one current thread someone told me about is WGs comparing Rolex watches to SubCrapta Noma IIIs. I’m not kidding. Another thread jumped all over somebody for looking into the same “high end” movement that’s now a part of the broken Speedway farce.
I don’t even want to breath the same air as those morons. OMFG.
May 20, 2010 at 10:55 pm
I think it’s probably more of an add on than a replacement for the forum so the missing link can pretend he’s hip to all the social networking sites. It’s always nice for ShopNBC to have guests that aren’t flowbee hair cut aficionados like Michael Davis
May 21, 2010 at 8:53 am
Y’all aint seen nothin yet … just wait, in a few weeks we is gonna have our big National Geek Get Together or “Geektogether” as has been suggested. We is gonna all be in one place with some of the biggest of WatchGeeks there in attendance. We is gonna be having us some serious social networking that even the likes of GAWD has never seen before.
I just hopes that you could join us and truly be part of a premier watch group who worships and praises JS, MD & EL and bow to there crotch and give them what they crave … the respect and admiration they demand.
I wonder what JS is going to do when some of his cigar friends from the past show up. I already know a few who are WG’s and are now planning to socially network with him again next month. To bad JS and his cronies are not smart enough to know who is really who on there site.
Should make for a very interesting social event when they begin to ask him for a little payback of what he took from them so many years ago. Its time for the past to come back to the present for Corona Gorda and its all about his social networking of the past that is now going to be in the present.
May 21, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Forums are old school now, social networking groups are all the rage these days. I would not surprised if the Watchgeeks opened up their own social networking group. I don’t blame them either. I don’t think it has anything to do with hiding Invicta’s poor quality and service, hell that is the worst kept secret anyhow.
On a side note I was glad to see Avi and Tim doing XOSkeleton on SNBC, I have a lot of respect for that brand and their daring designs. I noticed a thread on WG that seemed to me Jim was taking a swipe at Tim for his presentation during XO.
http://watchgeeks.net/showthread.php?t=106296
First thing I noticed was the remark “You will get more detail and info the next time they are presented.”. Which was in response to a member asking some basic questions about the brand. That just seemed like a shot at Tim for not doing a good job to me. Further on he states that he will be doing the next XOSkeleton show, with all new stuff but he has no idea when the next show will be. How can you be scheduled for something you have no idea when it will happen?
I think he will muscle his way in those shows alright, after all, Tim and Avi only sold out like everything. Would not want to miss the easy gravy train being the Invicta shows have been tanking.
May 21, 2010 at 5:02 pm
It might also be fun if some of the knife lords buddies from the knife forums show up. I think that would be sharp. 🙂
There are a lot of good people at the geek forum. Far more good than bad, but it is the bad ones who shout everyone else down. They take their lead from the guys who run the place.
They are allowed to hammer dissenters and then the oh mighty one shows up and says things like ” no bashing, even if they did say something true like MOLDY watches. By that time though the message is clear, lick the ass of the mighty mice or leave.
Ever notice how all of the complaints have the words, I dont want to bash, or Sorry, or I own 1 invicta watches, I love iVicta anon. They apologize just to complain about legit things.
Jim Skelton in my opinion has about as much class as a stained toilet. In fact I may be insulting the toilet with that comparision. With all of his toys and the money he brags he spends on them, guess how much he has repaid the people he is alleged to have taken for a ride? A very good source ( the person in fact ) says about $1500 out of thousands claimed.
Is that factual? Since the source is the person claiming the finincial loss, one has to suspect yes it is true but that is only one side of the story. Skelton has to come clean on it. He won’t though. While at BDWF, another forum, he posted threats against anyone bring up his past or attempting to “libel” him.
May 21, 2010 at 7:21 pm
HAHAHA! I love this whole DD Speedway issue.
http://watchgeeks.net/showthread.php?t=106634
So Jim has told Eyal, Eyal is aware of the problems, and something will be worked out eventually with no idea of what for the suckers who dropped a grand on an Invicta.
The monkeys grunt in approval even though the only thing that has been said and done is Jim apologized….
May 23, 2010 at 11:58 am
Invicta’s track record of late has been horrendous. One train wreck after another and Eyal is no where to be found. I find it ironic that every time another failure comes along, he is always out of the country. Reading some of the Geeks posts, it certainly appears they want a piece of his hide, especially after they loyal or shall I say brainwashed customers spent a grand on this latest disaster. They leave that schmuck Skelton to apologize and yet once again he looks like the idiot. When is he going to wake up and stop apologizing for Invicta’s crap? It’s becoming a full time job for him. Where’s that turd Davis at in all this? Isn’t he their Technical Manager? The only thing technical about this guy is the 40 weight oil he uses in his hair and those $90 K-Mart suits.
May 23, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Surprise last minute replacement of Jim by Tim and Mike looked out of sorts. Also, Tim makes a strange comment saying to all the geeks calling and emailing asking about Jim that it’s too convoluted to explain so go to Facebook to see Jim’s response. I checked out watch geeks to see if the geeks were up in arms but GUESS WHAT ….Watchgeeks is down for maintenance! Is this the end?
May 23, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Hal,
Fingers crossed…could it be….could it FINALLY be…?
May 23, 2010 at 7:39 pm
If you look at the schedule, Jimblow is not back until next Sunday for, not “Watch Time With Jim Skelton” but simply to host “Watch Time”.
Just sayin’
May 24, 2010 at 7:43 am
What is interesting is EL is out of the country but Jim has spoken to him about the problems with the Speedway debacle … does being out of the country also mean your out of computer communication? Maybe EL is not able to communicate with his own employee MD who should be standing up for EL and the company he collects a paycheck from instead of shirking the issue JS.
It is also quite interesting that MD has not said a singe word on this topic as well … almost as if Invicta is schirking all responsibilty and trying to let somebody fall on the sword.
Also at first didn’t a few try to blame the packaging and such? Would that not be ShopNBC’s fault? Strange how JS did not mention that one little bit at all in the possible blame game … Invicta makes a great basic watch but when they get up over a couple hundred they lose it, they have no quality control on anything that can not be mass produced by people who actually no what they are doing.
Just like the Lupah debacle wait til it all calms down and Invicta can inspect and fix all watches and you will be able to get the Speedway for about 1/2 of what it sold for at ShopNBC at a blow-out site and they will be correct this time.
It is interesting how Tim did Jim’s show last night and Invicta’s Puppet Boy (IPB) looked totally out of sorts. Also quite interesting on how it Miss Jill who was on in the middle of the nite last nite and not IPB … something all smells like that Minnesota Ludyfish. JS and IPB seemed a little subdued at the end of Saturday nights show. Did they know something that is yet to be made public?
May 24, 2010 at 8:05 am
Skelton is on the schedule for next weekend and his Watch Time with Skelton returns. The 9 month mark is in July. If anything is going to happen, it seems that would be the first window for his departure.
May 24, 2010 at 8:31 am
Maybe yes and maybe no … if ShopNBC or Invicta thinks JS was now more of a liability than an asset they could just take him off the air or release him from his contract. If they want him off the air or gone it would happen without a problem and under secrecy clauses and non-compete clauses as well.
Just what was his medical reasons for not being on the air?
May 24, 2010 at 9:22 am
I’m not sure why they’d throw Jimblo under the bus at this point – he sells dreams to the fiends and they slurp it up. Unless this falls on Bob whose now responsible for quality and lets Jim fall on the sword. If Jim only signed through July, than that is surely a shit move on SNBC managements part. Poor Invicta quality is not his fault. I know, I know – he’s a cheerleader for the brand; but that’s his job. SNBC is really whose responsible for Invicta’s latest shit the bed products.
May 24, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Mikey you brought up some great points of lack of Invicta QC. Just off the top of my head here are just some of the crap I have witnessed from Invicta over the last 12 months.
Lupah Reserve – Touted as a special movement Invicta developed with Seiko, like Seiko needs Invicta’s help in movement making. Plus the watch turned out to be a turd and all the returns got refurbished and blown out to distributors and sold for under $279 at most the places. Far cry from the $900 they originally sold at.
Sea Spider Sport – Had “Swiss” on the dial indicating it was a Swiss Made timepiece, it was not, merely Swiss Parts Movt. Invicta and Jim just glazed right over that glaring mistake on air.
OTV Excursion with ISA movement – Crown sat low from the case and had sharp ridges. Many reported it was very uncomfortable and Invicta did nothing.
Russian Diver 50 year – Caseback had 60 years on back.
Interchangeable strap Venom and SAIII – Screws to fine of thread, tons of people cross threading, screws breaking, etc… etc…
Lupah Grand OTV with MOP dial – Dirt cheap set, MOP dial possible sticker as un-natural looking wrinkles were reported in many of the dials.
Scuba TTV – Lots of reports of crowns and stems coming loose.
Colored ceramic watches – Invicta reps claim it is solid color all the way through. Turns out they were glazes on top of dull grey ceramic.
Original S1 Racers – ETA retrograde movements would jump from their settings at rest @ 9 and move to 9:15 setting for no reason.
SAIV – Lots of problems with missing “S” in Subaqua on the dial. Even SNBC model pictures have this missing as well.
DD Speedway – Total turd
Plasticase – Suing Invicta for taking their samples and having them sourced to be made cheaper in China. Invicta, specifically Eyal said many times on air that the case was a name brand, costing hundreds of dollars, very expensive case but could not say the name on air.
Flame Fusion – Tons of reports of the uber crystal that is better than sapphire or mineral scratching, chipping, cracking, etc….
That’s just off the top of my head and all within the last year.
May 24, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Wow, nice recap of Invicta’s issues LaL’s. And that’s just in the recent past. scary stuff right there.
May 24, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Jim has made an announcement that he’s being treated for TMJ and the earliest he’ll be back is next Monday. He writes that a possible cause is a new sub shop that has very chewy bread which he frequents 3x week. A picture of his fat neck and his bulging fish eyes were included showing a steroid patch on the jaw. What a tool!
May 24, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Fuzzywabbit, what is really scary is how so many of the WG crowds continually stick up for Invicta, even though the list of examples of shady business practices and shoddy quality is extremely long now. They don’t just defend them, but thank them for the bargains time and time again. It’s almost like battered wife syndrome really. Sad.
May 24, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Lies,
No kidding! It’s like trying to explain that pro wrestling isn’t real to a true believer, or that Benny Hinn isn’t the new savior, stuff like that. It’s simply amazing … I mean, nobody can be THAT dumb – except the WGs.
May 25, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Pro Wrestling is real … I dont care what you say it is real!!!
May 25, 2010 at 8:12 pm
You guys are killin me here, lol.
I’ve read a lot of WG’s posts over the past few years. What’s nice about the place is that if you take it in the short hairs on a Invicta, there’s always another Geek that will buy it from you. It’s like a breeding ground for the mentally challenged.
May 28, 2010 at 11:59 am
Boy oh boy if you really want a good time go read the newest forum over there, the one about the super duper extra fancy $1000 Speedway. It is so comical that they thought that Invicta could produce a great watch and for a $1000 you could get a $5000 watch with a super duper extra fancy special movement and actually get a watch that works, what a most hilarious debacle they have gotten themselves into now.
Skelton himself has basically declared that its all a problem with the movement due to sloppy gears and it was the bouncing around during shipping from Switzerland to Florida then to Kentucky and then to the suckers who bought them that caused the shoddy movement to be the problem. What is so hilarious is he has only had the samples in his hands and has no real idea what the true problems are but yet he the expert at it all has determined what the problem is and of course it is not Invicta’s fault at all. All this and the first watch has not been taken apart or yet to be taken apart by the watchmakers in Switzerland to be looked at.
But it is kind of what some of his kool-aid drinkers wants to hear. Skelton, Lalo and there Monkey Boy Davis should all be on Dancin with Crooks cause they sure are dancin around that whole debacle.
May 28, 2010 at 3:45 pm
You ain’t lying Mikey, Fred Astaire would be proud of this quality of tap dancing. As Jim and Mike have pointed out, they have not even looked at one single sample yet and they both are convinced DD is to blame but usually follow it up with “Eyal is very sorry”. How the hands falling off the cannon pinion, chronograph hands not resetting properly, and the hour and minute hands totally miscalibrated equate to the movement production by DD rather than the final calibration and servicing by Invicta I sure as hell can’t figure out. Plus let’s not forget those “Swiss” watchmakers at Invicta who “Hand assemble, inspect, and hand finish these black label top tier fine timepieces” and none of them caught any problems. Of course Peter and Tom who signed the QA papers on the watches are such classic Swiss men’s names and all.
I saw Jim made a big deal about Eyal coming in 2 days early to pull all the stock on hand rather than calling SNBC to do it. How does Eyal flying into Minnesota early mean anything special when the stock on hand is in a warehouse in Bowling Green Kentucky I can’t figure out. More spin and lies. If Eyal flew in early it was for other motives, certainly revenue generating motives, not making anyone happy with prior mistakes that should have never happened.
BTW, even if they do inspect these watches before they ever see the retail market again, bear in mind the same “Swiss watchmakers” (you know, Peter and Tom) who are the cut above the other watchmakers, because Reserve level timepieces only get worked on by a small group of watchmakers who are “the best of the best”. Yeah, those guys who missed all these problems the first will be the ones responsible for fixing what they missed.
I am overjoyed at this prospect.
May 29, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Lies,
As usual, you are just nailing it. Makes sense to me, and all of us here – but those sentiments mean little to guy who live inside their TVs such as the WGs. How people who decide to drop a grand on a watch and get back a UPS-shipped turd … and STILL DON’T QUIT THE BRAND simply get what they deserve. I hope those grunting monkeys get ripped off and ripped off and ripped off. I hereby promise that anytime I see anyone wearing an Invicta watch that I will openly point and laugh.
May 30, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Krane,
Don’t laugh and point, instead ask them if it was Jim’s sexual innuendos implying that the watch would get him laid that sold him on it. Ask if maybe it was Mike’s electric personality that sold him on it. Perhaps ask him if he is just one of those creepy “Jill is sooooo hot” guys on the WG who start up endless threads about her hotness, long discussions about what she is wearing, and generally have not seen a woman naked since pre-Y2K that put had him pull the trigger on that chick magnet of a watch.
May 31, 2010 at 10:21 pm
INVICTA EXPOSED!!!
http://watchgeeks.net/showthread.php?t=108489
Check out page 3 and on of that thread. A member opened up the casebacks on his Swiss Russian Divers and guess what? They have Chinese movements!
For so long now Eyal and Jim have told us that Swiss on the dial of an Invicta means the same as Swiss Made, they just use Swiss for visual purposes. Hell even the most electrifying man in all of watch sales, Michael Davis/Meijin just recently reposted that if the dial is marked Swiss on Invicta, it is Swiss Made. Silence from Jim and Michael since this revelation. Guess the spin machine needs time on this one.
LIES ALL LIES!!!!
May 31, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Fucking hilarious! Some of the same dolts who berated me across various blogs are now stuned; you fucking rubes – the Russian Diver was never made by Invicta! It’s a lie! And now Invicta, from Laylo to Davis and even Jimblo Skelton are pushing watches with Chinese movements as Swiss made – ha, ha, ha! Some horological expert SlopNBC has in Skelton! Ha, ha, ha!
I’d love to see a complaint filed with the FTC!
June 1, 2010 at 6:50 am
Why not a class action lawsuit against Eyal Lalo, Jim Skelton, ShopNBC and Invicta by all of the customers that bought what they were told was Swiss Made but never were. Forget the FTC go straight for the pocketbooks of those who sold them on knowingly false statements.