FOR THE RECORD

Pundits are protesting the Powermatic 80 and Tissot but their criticisms fall short of the mark

- ASHOK SOMAN

Watchmaking brands typically do not require anyone to stand up for them. In the old days, and right up until the 1990s probably, this was obvious and did not need to be spelled out. Even in other segments, this writer assumes that various published defences of Tesla, for example, are more statements of support for Elon Musk than they are for the EV firm. In this specific kind of case, said defences are no doubt useful to The NeXt Martian.

On that perhaps relevant note, social media being the charmingly vile cesspool of bad behaviour that it is, one is sometimes tempted to intervene. This is almost always a bad idea – only governments typically attempt to police the Internet and that goes about as well as hugging a hippopotamus might. In a niche area such as watch collecting, there is relatively less of a need to set the record straight – watch brands themselves are hardly able to keep things straight. Less is not zero though which is why I find myself inclined to ride to Tissot’s defence with regards to several spurious charges laid against it. These have been disappointing, although some issues are more understandable than others.