EmmyWatch issues

[thor447]

I'm wondering if I'm just doing something wrong or if others are having the same issues.  I used to routinely use the database at EmmyWatch.com.  I just found it easier to navigate than other websites.  Lately, if I'm trying to research a particular movement to get part numbers, etc., the results that it displays are not for the correct movement.

For example, if I look up a common movement like a Seiko 7009a, it shows the following results:

Obviously this Seiko movement is not a pin lever small seconds chrono.  

Has anyone else been having issues with EmmyWatch?  It used to be such a great resource.

[JohnR725]

I was taking the slow way to the website by just doing a search and made a interesting discovery. I found a PDF of the watch your searching for now to curiosity I downloaded it and I'm attaching the file I found on the website with the name modified at the end so we can differentiate the one from her website versus the one I downloaded from Seiko. So notice the tech sheets are identical but she gets credit for letting you downloaded offer website.

This is what happens to a database when things get out of sync.

 

Seiko 7009A.pdf seiko--7009a--movement_parts EmmyWatch.pdf

[thor447]

I found those documents at from other websites, but even going the long way to EmmyWatch, I cannot seem to find the copy of the doucment you provided.  Seiko sheets are readily available so getting that info elsewhere isn't much of an issue.  I was just trying to see which movements use the same barrel complete as a Seiko 7009a.  I found the data through Jules Borel.  I previously used Emmy Watch only because I liked the layout of their website better, and the search function was much easier than having to use Jules Borel.

[JohnR725]

18 minutes ago, thor447 said:

I cannot seem to find the copy of the doucment you provided. 

Because I didn't actually know the address or website I just searched for the word and the model number of the watch and there was a link. Just as when I went to the website I couldn't even figure out how to do a search for anything were typically in the past the only way I found the website was by searching for something and basically stumbling across it and then being in the weight with the whole thing I prefer other sites for cross-referencing parts and things

 

[GuyMontag]

20 hours ago, thor447 said:

Has anyone else been having issues with EmmyWatch?  It used to be such a great resource.

I had an Emmywatch bookmark saved on my toolbar and when I click it it takes me to a specific movement. No real reason I have the bookmark saved that way, I just did. I found that after a time (about 3-4 months ago) that when I would click on that bookmark it would show me some other movement. And when I searched for other movements they would show me incorrect ones. I then tried clicking on the bookmark after connecting to a vpn and it showed the correct movement, same if I then search for any other movement.

So I thought that perhaps the site doesn't like it if you constantly hit it with the same request, like maybe it interprets that as bot activity (ie, a scraper) and then plays shenanigans to give you worthless results for any requests from that IP address. I confirmed over a couple of weeks that any time I wasn't behind a vpn it would give me incorrect results and any time I was behind the VPN the results were correct.

Just today though I noticed that nothing on the site is working, behind a vpn or not, so it could be something is going on with the database at the moment.

[JackH]

I get a "502 gateway error" when searching the Emmywatch database. The database list of manufacturers only shows the first page and gets stuck advancing to page 2, etc. Something must be messed up with their database.

 

[JackH]

It seems to be working now.

[thor447]

2 hours ago, JackH said:

It seems to be working now.

I'm still getting incorrect search results.  For example, looking up a Seiko 6105A movement, it is showing it as a Bulova quartz.

[GuyMontag]

10 hours ago, thor447 said:

I'm still getting incorrect search results.  For example, looking up a Seiko 6105A movement, it is showing it as a Bulova quartz.

I just did a search for Seiko 6105A movement and got the same Bulova quartz result as you. Then i turned on my VPN and redid the search and got the correct result. I think they have something that is analyzing IP addresses and if it thinks you have been 'overusing' the database it will deliberately return incorrect results.

[JackH]

I get the correct result for the 6105a using Firefox. I was getting gateway errors for any search earlier. It is a good resource for movement information. 

[thor447]

Yes indeed!  Thank you!  I got behind a VPN based out of Japan and now am getting proper search results.

[JohnR725]

On 12/5/2023 at 6:39 AM, GuyMontag said:

I think they have something that is analyzing IP addresses and if it thinks you have been 'overusing' the database it will deliberately return incorrect results.

I kinda find that hard to believe because it looks like everything they do on that website is to generate money and limiting your ability to search limits them on how much money they make.

then I was looking at their database and it looks like it's identical to the one found here?

http://cgi.julesborel.com/

then even more amusing was I looked for an obscure watch and both databases were identical but on their website I can try to order some parts

but the big difference between the database is you can order the parts well not really. I was looking at obscure watch for parts relisted and it asked if I'd like to order the parts so I said yes and it just sat there and spun its wheels for quite some time is having a really hard time finding something that doesn't actually exist sort of. I know the part does exist but it's not available for sale anywhere but it did try and it never gave me an error saying it couldn't find the party just kept on searching just never to be found ever

[GuyMontag]

My theory is that while they of course want people to search the database, they don't want people to scrape or abuse it. I can literally try and search the db without a vpn and it returns garbage results and then turn on the vpn and get correct results. I can turn the vpn off and on multiple times, checking a search with it on or off, and it will fail with the vpn off and work with it on time after time. So there is clearly some IP shaping going on. The reason why I can't say for sure.

I'm sure they scraped jules borel. I have noticed in the past that I've seen an error on JB that I've also seen repeated on EW, with the same kind of parts naming shorthand that JB uses. I've also seen results on EW that return the same results as JB, but with additional info. So EW may be adding some of their own info or scraping other sites.

[tomh207]

I’m surprised about this, usually if a website doesn’t want you doing too many searches in a short period of time they will serve a pop up to say you can’t search again for a specific time period. More interesting is @JohnR725 ‘s comment that the information including sale information is like Borels which would make me suspicious that they scraped that website.

 

Ton

[JohnR725]

2 hours ago, GuyMontag said:

I'm sure they scraped jules borel. I have noticed in the past that I've seen an error on JB that I've also seen repeated on EW, with the same kind of parts naming shorthand that JB uses. I've also seen results on EW that return the same results as JB, but with additional info. So EW may be adding some of their own info or scraping other sites.

I doubt there are creating anything of their own I think there harvesting from everything else in the universe. for instance what I was searching for the lens am I brought this up a searching forever Seiko thing and I found their PDF watermarked with it came from them even though of course the PDF belongs to Seiko it gives the impression that it's their PDF at least it did for me.

Oh database I wonder where he could find one of those? Need your own database of watch parts water to look at the link below it's a big file and it took for ever to uncompress itself but it does appear to be 100% there.

 

https://archive.org/details/jules-borel-parts-db-2023-08-13