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BREAKING NEWS: New ownership

64523 Views 429 Replies 322 Participants Last post by  tdiallo
Dear watch friends, dear members, dear visitors,

Time has come for me to hand over my baby, Watchuseek, to a third party I believe and have trust in.

After 16 years of hard work (seemed like 24/7 all this time) building the largest watch forum in the world, it is time for me to step down, and focus on other projects. They will not necessarily be business projects, although I am planning to stay in the watch world (what else?), perhaps as a distributor for a few brands in the Benelux, I don't know.

What I do know is that I'm definitely planning to share more time with my wife and family. They have been coping with me for all these years. Never a real holiday (I always had to have internet access to work…). But they gave me the space to work and share my hobby with so many watch friends all over the world.

Time for a bit more relaxation, less work hours and less stress. The heart rhythm problems that occurred while I was at Baselworld last March certainly was a sign for me. A big one! It made me realize that working this hard (I also have a full time job as a team leader on a school for children with special needs) was not good for my health, and I was the only one that could do something about it.

During the many years I was approached by a couple of interested parties, but VerticalScope seemed to be the right choice at the right time.

Don't get me wrong, the decision was a very tough one, and it took me lots of time and headaches to finally make one. You don't give up on your baby that easy, I can promise you that. And there is of course my team, the wonderful people behind those usernames, the voluntary moderators, and the team of MaL's. It's hard to leave the team, almost just like that. It's tough, really tough, believe me. They have been doing an absolutely great job in the best possible harmony. Any company would wish to have such a dedicated and warm team. Thank you guys!

I would also like to thank all the sponsors and advertisers. Thank you for your business and your friendship. You made sure I could pay all the bills to keep the site up and running, and more.

Last but NOT least, I want to thank YOU, our members, every single one of you. You are an important if not THE most important part of the success of Watchuseek. Thank you SO much.

Dear friends, I hope you will understand my decision, the reasons why I wanted to step down, why this step is so important for me at this stage in my life.

The team from VerticalScope will not be doing any major changes to the site and your membership will continue like it has done all this time. I wish you and yours the VERY best, and hope this hobby and the ongoing discussions will last forever.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Ernie Romers
Founder and former owner of world's largest, most visited, and BEST watch forum site … WATCHUSEEK !
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Tankyou and all the best, Ernie.

Tlapatlaked
I wish you a good health ,lot's of fun with your family and good luck in every project you get in to! Het ga je goed Ernie, bedankt voor alles,
Mvg,
I-B
Good luck and Godspeed, Mr. Romers.

Using my mobile; please pardon the brevity of my reply, and any typos.
As already expressed Ernie: thank you for creating a cracking community - you will be missed. Very best wishes for the future.

Welcome again to my new bosses! No changes sound great - we mods have many great traditions: random banning Tuesdays, ignore members with F in their names Fridays, no Seiko sales Sundays...long may they continue.
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All the best Ernie.....

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Health comes FIRST. Thanks and good wishes.
Thank you for everything, Ernie! Enjoy your "retirement"!


Warmest regards,
~Sherry
Thanks for creating this place. And certainly until we meet again! All the best!
To celebrate the new era can we all have our infractions scrubbed from the records? No? Ah, worth a go.

I do hope Ernie will continue to post. I think a daily visit to the f2 WRUW threads, for example.....
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Thank you Ernie for all you have given us and best wishes for your future.

Welcome WatchSeekr!
Bedankt Ernie voor all the joy die we dank zij jouw hadden met deze fantastische website!!!

All the best met je dromen om misschien distributor te worden voor Benelux voor enkele merken!

Voor nu zou ik zeggen: Have a safe journey!!!

Bruno Geuth in Belgium
Great job great site health and family are the most important part of our lives thanks


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Ernie.
Thank you for letting us know.
I for 1 appreciate ALL that you have done here for us.

A place to hang out.
A place to vent .
:-x
A place to have & create friendships.
:)
A place to share OUR passion & knowledge
My love for horology & WUS saved my life so to speak.
Thanks for always supporting us here & helping me w/ all my trying times here on WUS. You will be missed.
I hope you start to feel less stress in your life & pls don't be a stranger.
Time for you to spend time w/ you & yours. ENJOY IT MY FRIEND

Too ALL the mods here THANK YOU for keeping this place running smooth as well.

To the new team, WELCOME to the insanity.
|>
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Best of luck Ernie. We all love our timepieces, but health and family comes first always.
Ernie, a sincere thank you for your work building this site, I have spent many hours here. Very best of luck with future ventures. New Overlords, nice to see you're local, I can come over and complain in person if the servers go down
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As life goes inevitable change is a part of it! Mr. Roamer through his forethought and sacrifice has built what has become the most referred to site when it comes to the horological needs of a world wide audience and the prototype for others to both aspire too and emulate! The new ownership has a lot to live up too and it appears that Ernie has once again put in the hard work to make the right choice to meet the challenges moving forward! Mr. Roamer you have done an incredible job of making WUS the most well informed watch forum on the net with the most diverse offerings from the novice to the elite collectors! In summation you've built what amounts to a fun place to visit! And for that I think I can speak for the many here in expressing our utmost appreciation for all that you've built and also congratulate you on all that you've achieved in the world of horology! Good luck with your side projects and hopefully you will still check in from time to time? I wish you and your (real ;-)) family nothing but the best in life and thank you! Congrats to the new owners on acquiring the most sought after keys to the biggest horological kingdom on the net and best of luck moving forward........:think:.... we'll all be interested in were it goes from here !
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Ernie, today I wrote you on FB, without knowing that you leave. Anyhow wish you all the best for your future and I am sure we will meet somewhere again.
Thank you Ernie for creating WUS and helping the community flourish. Best of luck with future endeavors.
Thank you Mr. Romers, for your dedication to this site. Enjoy your family, because in the end, that's what it's about.

Best to you and your's

Ray
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