21words

what changed this week

Every Monday we re-check the public scores behind 20 of our 21 lists: Numbeo for cities and countries, Tripadvisor for hotels, restaurants, islands and experiences, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb and Letterboxd for film and TV, Metacritic for albums, Goodreads for books, road-test ratings for cars, the Reuters Institute Digital News Report for news, the Morgan Stanley / LuxeConsult Swiss watch report for watches and Trustpilot for shops and platforms. Magazines is the exception: it is an editor’s curated list with no scores, because no verifiable source covers those titles, so it is never re-scored. This page logs what actually moved: new entries and exits, score changes, rank moves and rewritten verdicts. When a source cannot be reached we keep the previous score, so a quiet week here means nothing changed, not that nothing was checked. Last update: 2 November 2026.

Latest: 2 November 2026

Compared with 19 October 2026: 2 score changes.

Films

  • The Sun Never Sets: score 71 → 70

Fashion

  • ARKET: score 30 → 28

No changes: Cities, Countries, Islands, Classic films, Series, Classic TV, Luxury cars, Classic cars, EVs, Preloved, Beauty, Watches, Hotels, Restaurants, Magazines, News, Music, Books, Experiences.

19 October 2026

Compared with 12 October 2026: 4 score changes, 2 rank moves.

Films

  • Buddy: score 72 → 73
  • The Sun Never Sets: score 72 → 71

Series

  • The Bear: score 83 → 84

Luxury cars

  • Porsche 911 Carrera: score 92 → 91

No changes: Cities, Countries, Islands, Classic films, Classic TV, Classic cars, EVs, Fashion, Preloved, Beauty, Watches, Hotels, Restaurants, Magazines, News, Music, Books, Experiences.

12 October 2026

Compared with 6 October 2026: 28 score changes, 32 rank moves, 36 list entries or exits, 45 verdicts rewritten.

Films

  • Dune: Part Two: score 88 → 87
  • Buddy: score 73 → 72
  • Godzilla Minus One: rank 8 → 7
  • The Sun Never Sets: rank 18 → 17

Watches

  • New on the list: Richard Mille (89)
  • New on the list: Vacheron Constantin (85)
  • New on the list: Jaeger-LeCoultre (75)
  • New on the list: Hermès (73)
  • New on the list: Hublot (69)
  • New on the list: Bulgari (65)
  • New on the list: Chanel (63)
  • New on the list: Chopard (61)
  • New on the list: Panerai (59)
  • Dropped off: Grand Seiko (was 92)
  • Dropped off: Nomos Glashütte (was 90)
  • Dropped off: Sinn (was 90)
  • Dropped off: Casio (was 88)
  • Dropped off: Orient (was 86)
  • Dropped off: Junghans (was 72)
  • Dropped off: Seiko (was 44)
  • Dropped off: Hamilton (was 42)
  • Dropped off: Citizen (was 30)
  • Rolex: score 42 → 99
  • Cartier: score 36 → 97
  • Audemars Piguet: score 88 → 95
  • Patek Philippe: score 94 → 93
  • Omega: score 58 → 91
  • Longines: score 46 → 87
  • Breitling: score 50 → 83
  • Tissot: score 36 → 81
  • TAG Heuer: score 72 → 79
  • IWC: score 44 → 77
  • Swatch: score 48 → 71
  • Tudor: score 86 → 67
  • 12 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Magazines

  • An unscored, editor’s curated list since 12 October 2026, so no score or rank changes are reported.
  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only)

News

  • New on the list: ABC News (Australia) (66)
  • New on the list: ARD Tagesschau (65)
  • New on the list: CBC News (62)
  • New on the list: Corriere della Sera (59)
  • New on the list: Der Spiegel (57)
  • New on the list: NHK News (57)
  • New on the list: Financial Times (56)
  • New on the list: NPR News (44)
  • New on the list: The Wall Street Journal (43)
  • Dropped off: Associated Press (was 88)
  • Dropped off: Rest of World (was 84)
  • Dropped off: Haaretz (was 78)
  • Dropped off: The Japan Times (was 78)
  • Dropped off: South China Morning Post (was 76)
  • Dropped off: Al Jazeera English (was 56)
  • Dropped off: Deutsche Welle (was 40)
  • Dropped off: Reuters (was 38)
  • Dropped off: France 24 (was 28)
  • Channel NewsAsia: score 80 → 78
  • Straits Times: score 80 → 77
  • The Hindu: score 80 → 63
  • Daily Maverick: score 82 → 62
  • BBC News: score 26 → 59
  • Folha de S.Paulo: score 80 → 53
  • Infobae: score 76 → 53
  • Le Monde: score 88 → 53
  • Nikkei: score 84 → 51
  • The Guardian: score 32 → 51
  • El País: score 28 → 49
  • The New York Times: score 36 → 43
  • 12 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Music

  • Cry Baby: score 87 → 88
  • Half-Told Tales: score 84 → 85
  • Blonde: rank 14 → 15
  • Norman Fucking Rockwell!: rank 14 → 15
  • Nothing's About To Happen To Me: rank 14 → 15
  • Secret Love: rank 14 → 15
  • you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love: rank 14 → 15

No changes: Cities, Countries, Islands, Classic films, Series, Classic TV, Luxury cars, Classic cars, EVs, Fashion, Preloved, Beauty, Hotels, Restaurants, Books, Experiences.

6 October 2026

Compared with 5 October 2026: 400 verdicts rewritten.

Cities

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Countries

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Islands

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Films

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Classic films

  • 18 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Series

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Classic TV

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Luxury cars

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Classic cars

  • 17 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

EVs

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Fashion

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Preloved

  • 19 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Beauty

  • 20 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Watches

  • 7 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Hotels

  • 20 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Restaurants

  • 19 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Magazines

  • An unscored, editor’s curated list since 12 October 2026, so no score or rank changes are reported.
  • 18 verdicts rewritten (wording only)

News

  • 12 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Music

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Books

  • 21 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Experiences

  • 19 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

5 October 2026

Compared with 28 September 2026: 26 score changes, 38 rank moves, 25 verdicts rewritten.

Films

  • Primetime: score 82 → 80
  • Mayday: score 63 → 62
  • Finding Emily: rank 16 → 15

Classic TV

  • Twin Peaks: score 87 → 86

Preloved

  • ThredUp: score 26 → 28

Watches

  • Rolex: score 90 → 42
  • Omega: score 88 → 58
  • Seiko: score 84 → 44
  • Longines: score 86 → 46
  • Tissot: score 82 → 36
  • Swatch: score 80 → 48
  • Cartier: score 90 → 36
  • IWC: score 86 → 44
  • Breitling: score 84 → 50
  • TAG Heuer: score 78 → 72
  • Citizen: score 84 → 30
  • Hamilton: score 84 → 42
  • Junghans: score 88 → 72
  • Tudor: rank 11 → 7
  • Casio: rank 7 → 5
  • Audemars Piguet: rank 7 → 5
  • Orient: rank 11 → 7
  • 13 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

Magazines

  • An unscored, editor’s curated list since 12 October 2026, so no score or rank changes are reported.
  • 3 verdicts rewritten (wording only)

News

  • Reuters: score 90 → 38
  • BBC News: score 86 → 26
  • The Guardian: score 82 → 32
  • Al Jazeera English: score 84 → 56
  • Le Monde: score 84 → 88
  • El País: score 82 → 28
  • The New York Times: score 84 → 36
  • Deutsche Welle: score 82 → 40
  • France 24: score 80 → 28
  • Nikkei: rank 4 → 3
  • The Hindu: rank 13 → 6
  • Straits Times: rank 13 → 6
  • Daily Maverick: rank 9 → 5
  • Folha de S.Paulo: rank 13 → 6
  • Associated Press: rank 2 → 1
  • Channel NewsAsia: rank 13 → 6
  • The Japan Times: rank 18 → 10
  • Haaretz: rank 18 → 10
  • Infobae: rank 20 → 12
  • South China Morning Post: rank 20 → 12
  • Rest of World: rank 4 → 3
  • 9 verdicts rewritten (wording only; scores unchanged)

No changes: Cities, Countries, Islands, Classic films, Series, Luxury cars, Classic cars, EVs, Fashion, Beauty, Hotels, Restaurants, Music, Books, Experiences.

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