To 'watch' or not to watch

The persistence of Internet users to pursue officials wearing "expensive" watches, after they brought a Nanjing real estate official - spotted with a 100,000-yuan ($14,600) wristwatch - under the scanner, is generating mixed reactions from researchers as well as the general public.

An Internet user who goes by the pseudo name "I only drink wine for drinks" posted a blog on the People's Daily website showing photographs of 15 county Party secretaries sporting watches that he thought were too expensive for any of them to afford given their salaries, the Chengdu Commercial Daily reported yesterday.

The names and titles of the 15 officials were mentioned in the post, but only three of the officials' watches were "recognizable".