Hodinkee’s founder Ben Clymer has defended the company’s decision to buy pre-owned watch specialist Crown & Calibre in February, 2021, soon after a cash injection of $40 million from investors including TCG, LVMH Luxury Ventures, Tom Brady and John Mayer.
In a LinkedIn post last week, Mr Clymer refers to a The Wall Street Journal article that presented the past few years as a rollercoaster of grand ambitions in the lead up to the 2022 spike in secondary market prices for popular Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe watches followed by a return to earth as the pre-owned luxury watch market froze then slumped.
Hodinkee mistimed its entry into the pre-owned space and is now adjusting its business model following some painful decisions to contain costs and generate cash including a shift towards consignment for second hand watches on its Hodinkee Shop site.
Mr Clymer says the WSJ article, titled They Built a $100 Million Watch Empire. Then the Market Tanked glosses over more than a decade of success at Hodinkee and its impact on the world of watches, commerce, luxury, and content.
“Instead, it focused on Hodinkee’s challenges over the past few years since we decided to acquire a pre-owned watch seller,” he suggests, before conceding: “Fair enough – that one project didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to. But I think back to the time when we (our CEO, board, investors, etc.,) made the decision, and it was the right one for the moment.”
His LinkedIn post suggests that, having taken tough decisions including a painful succession of redundancies across the media and retail arms of the company, Hodinkee is ready for the next stage of its development in rapidly changing landscape.
“The life of any business, like any person, is long and winding. The life of Hodinkee is already 16 years old and far from over. I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished, and what we will continue to do to make the world of watches better. Our platform is still the one by which all others are measured – our audience still the most engaged (and continuing to grow!) – and our product team still the best in the world,” Mr Clymer describes.
“All this to say, stay tuned for more to come very, very soon,” he concludes.
Hodinkee has one of the most passionate audiences in the watch business, and has been attacked for blurring the lines between its media and ecommerce arms, normally through vitriolic messages in its comments section.
The LinkedIn community appears to be more supportive, with dozens of notes under the post by Mr Clymer thanking him for his contribution.
“Benjamin Clymer The watch world wouldn’t be what it is without what you have built. With lots of Love for Hodinkee and its incredible team,” says Marine Lemonier, founder & managing director at 289 Consulting, a Swiss based PR consultancy specialising in luxury watch brands.
“Dude, buddy, brother, old friend … I have known you long enough to know that it is not a matter of you landing on your own two feet again. Rather, this is a matter of corresponding to the current and global slow-down in your/our field. Call it what you or WSJ want, it is not just the Dink feeling the brutal cooling of the market. It is everyone, everybody. That said, it is an utmost pleasure to see you around much more these days. We missed you, man,” adds Kristian Haagen, a Denmark-based writer who runs his own blog, Kristianhaagen.com, which also has a side line in selling watches and watch accessories.