Brands' web sites that are too fancy for their own good

[Tatters]

I often come across a new watch or brand that I might be interested in, and want to find out more, which typically means: can I see some pictures of all their offerings, and if there are any I immediately like the look of, what is the specification? But why do so many brands (and dealers) want to throw obstacles in your way for what should be a simple process? Things like:

• "Watch this five minute marketing video guff first" (how do I get rid of it?).
• "Do you want to web-chat with our advisor?" (stop annoying me and go away!).
• "Here is a money-off coupon" (I have not even decided I want to buy anything yet).

All these overlays and popups cause really slow page loads, and can be fiddly to get rid off, which is off-putting. There was another thread today about a new Patek release which is a good example - just go to the Patek home page: https://www.patek.com/en/home. Just as well Patek is well outside my price bracket, but even if I could afford and wanted one, I don't think some lame marketing video would sway me at all.

[earlofsodbury]

Hear! Hear!

There are probably some good watch manufacturer websites out there somewhere - but if you asked me to name one, I could not.

Instead, what you get is a fixed banner that is too deep (at least in landscape/laptop mode), annoying repeat pop-ups every time you move to a fresh page, drop-downs that obscure the entire screen, vast, complex menus that use-up half the visible area or a menu tab so obscure you need a PhD in cryptographics to detect the one particular pixel that will take you where you want to go. You have "collections" labelled by dozens of fanciful and utterly meaningless names which tell you nothing about the nature of the watches therein, search bars that barely work, sorting algorithms that are useless or inapplicable, horrible images - all too often face-on CAD renders that barely resemble the IRL product or ultra-low quality jpegs apparently photographed with a potato, "technical details" that omit trivial details like size, movement, materials etc., and of course agonisingly slow load times of all this crapola...

Most of it is painfully "Web 1.1" standard, rarely updated and frankly useless - which in a world that rarely looks up from its phones and computers, never mind one that is spending months and even years locked-down away from physical retail - is utter madness, and sure reason why in an amazingly diverse world of watches, only a tiny number of brands are ever heard of - even on a forum full of watch obsessives like us.

Madness!

[rico]

The Zenith website is painfully over designed.

[Tom-P]

The Zenith website is painfully over designed.

Agreed. I generally give up in exasperation because it's so user-unfriendly.

[Tatters]

I just went to check out the Zenith web-site, but instead I seem to have stumbled on some wannabe Banksy's home page. Geez, what the *** is that about?

[jl smout]

I quite like the Frodsham website. It's elegant, understated, and easy to understand in a few clicks. Compare it to the Zenith monstrosity above, and it's a whole world away.

[Tatters]

I quite like the Frodsham website. It's elegant, understated, and easy to understand in a few clicks. Compare it to the Zenith monstrosity above, and it's a whole world away.

It is definitely understated, to the point that I am not clear whether they actually sell watches...I quite like their wristwatch with Arabic numerals, but I have no idea how much it costs, which means it is probably well outside my league.