Romain Jerome Eyjafjallajökull DNA

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Romain Jerome Eyjafjallajökull DNA
by Kyle Stults on April 21, 2010

Fancy

Nice try…

But is this really the “DNA” that legends are made of?

While others are fine to simply reprint the Romain Jerome press release on this one, I am not. This watch borders on the is absurd. Why? It is way too opportunistic if you ask me. The press release –heck the whole concept — seems all too hastily put together for my liking. Will the finished product even look nearly as spectacular as the press image (below)? I am skeptical. But really that’s beside the point here.

Maybe I am reading too far into this, but is this volcano really such a legendary event in human history to associate your brand with? Show me something positive about what this Eyjafjallajökull volcano has done for the world. In fact it is just the opposite — it has caused great chaos, hardship, economic loss and disruption. It is not a source of pride, at least from my perspective. Actually the Titanic (another RJ concept watch) is not much different in this regard, except it happened almost a 100 years ago, i.e. the pain, suffering and economic loss is well past, and it did in fact become a defining moment in history. As for this event — well who knows how history will record it 10, 15, 20, 100 years from now. Whether Eyjafjallajökull is largely forgotten or not — I think the one (and hopefully only) watch inspired by it will quite quickly lose its meaning and worth.

http://twitter.com/MiguelSeabra Miguel Seabra

The big question: how on earth did they get the rocks/ashes if there were no planes flying in Europe? Anyway, I’m not as tough as you are analyzing this unique piece — I don’t think it’s so opportunistic (otherwise they’d do several pieces: the number of years after the previous eruption, for instance), my take is that it’s a good-humoured piece and I laughed when I saw the planes on the pointers. The flight companies are not laughing, though…
- Kyle
  
  Hi Miguel-
  Thanks for the comment. I guess the watch is probably net yet produced and they anticipate little problem securing some ashes eventually.
  
  But to the more serious point, I personally don’t see any humor in the piece and I think the timing is particularly bad given that the situation is still ongoing. Need they turn a natural disaster into a DNA of Legends watch in real time? I say it is not even yet established as a legend.
  
  Better to announce this as a piece for charity — that is something I can get behind in a situation such as this.
  
  Anyway — thanks and much appreciate your point of view.
Jason

Those are some strong words, especially considering you “simply” took that photo, a photo which I optimized earlier today in Photoshop, and then published it on your site. I am glad you are fine with others who “simply” reprint press releases. I mean I guess you should be, considering you simply lifted the picture from my site. No worries, as I don’t watermark images, like you have discussed in this previous post http://blog.perpetuelle.com/index.php/watch-news/riddle-me-this-why-do-you-watermark-your-images/#comments, but now maybe at least you will have a better understanding of why some companies do choose to watermark their manufacturer supplied images.

MAINLY BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT PEOPLE “SIMPLY” LIFTING THEM FROM THEIR SITE AFTER THEY DID THE WORK TO PUBLISH THEM INITIALLY.
- Kyle
  
  a) first off, there’s nothing wrong with reprinting press releases on your blog from watch brands. I know you don’t do this all the time, so I now state”sometimes”.
  
  b) Althought I’ve been down this path before, I’ll say that if you think you are the only one who receives PR’s from RJ then you are mistaken. case in point, let me try another image I have “optimized” from the PDF
Jason

Kyle,

1- I never stated that I am the only one to receive press releases, nor do I say I am the first to receive them, or the first to publish them. And I never use watermarks.

2- I have published more than 20 “exclusive” articles in the past 30 days – all with my own writing and photography.

3- I appreciate that you recognized my concern, and made an appropriate clarification in your post.
- Kyle
  
  Jason–
  I never use watermarks, either, and I think our approach is the proper one in this regard. I also recognize a lot of your articles are exclusive, which is great and unlike all but a handful of watch blogs out there today.
  
  I grant you that my initial opening line was too broad a generalization — I further changed my blog post to make sure it speaks only to this particular instance. No offense was intended, just got a bit hasty/sloppy myself.
http://CHRONOS24.pl LukasD

Bad idea…just stupid, pointless and bad.
Chief

I think this is a great watch and a magnificent idea. The eruption (as far as I’m concerned) didn’t cause anyones death, and the “only” thing that it caused was some economic loss and travels had to be rescheduled. Even if maybe most of the people were annoyed because of it, some people were allowed to spend more time in a tourist destination, find new friends or experience something entirely new (let’s say taking a car from Israel to Europe. In this case I think that making watches out of the volcanic ash seems very appopriate at least compared to the Titanic ones. It’s sinking probably wasn’t a nice avent for anyone.
- Kyle
  
  thanks for your comment!