Since 2008, Hodinkee has grown from a small watch blog into a $100 million company. Now Ben Clymer wants to turn his passion project into a highly profitable company — without taking away Hodinkee’s soul. The goal: to become the “New York Times for watches”.
If you don’t know exactly where to go, you can easily miss the Hodinkee office. Because, similar to its media and e-commerce brand that specializes in watches, Hodinkee doesn’t necessarily rely on ostentation when it comes to the office. Although the two-story office is located in the middle of downtown New York, it is barely noticeable from the outside in the brick building that houses it.
Everything is largely quiet inside too. It’s late on a Friday evening and most of the employees are in their home office or after work. One of the few people present is Ben Clymer, who founded the company 15 years ago. Clymer no longer has an operational role, but his passion for his “firstborn,” as the father of two affectionately calls Hodinkee, remains unbroken. After taking a break from operational business, which he gave himself, it now seems as if Clymer is becoming more active at Hodinkee again. “The company is much larger than when we started. But there is still a lot of myself in Hodinkee today, and we want to preserve and strengthen this authenticity.
”Over the years, Clymer turned the quirky watch blog he started as a student into a company that generates around $100 million in sales from e-commerce, insurance and media business and employs around 100 people. In the last financing round (2020), the company value was put at US$ 100 million.Clymer soon realized that he was not designed to navigate such a ship. Jeffery Fowler, who came to Hodinkee from the e-commerce group Farfetch, now acts as CEO, while Clymer himself is officially Executive Chairman.
“I work with our CEO on strategic issues, talk to our investors – and create content,” says Clymer, who is still seen by the Hodinkee community as the soul of the brand. Shortly before our interview, he finished recording his new video podcast. His guest? Porsche grandson and watch collector Ferdi Porsche. For Clymer and Fowler, the main thing from an entrepreneurial perspective is to increase profitability. Clymer does not provide precise information about the margin, but says: “I believe that we have a real chance of being highly profitable in the near future.” But Clymer emphasizes in the next breath that the origins must not be lost.
“We want to be the New York Times for watches. Selling watches is a good way to achieve this goal.”
A large part of Hodinkee’s sales, Clymer says around 90%, now come from the e-commerce business. Hodinkee sells both new and used watches, with the former accounting for around 50% and the latter around 40% of sales. The fact that buyers are so loyal and trust Hodinkee enough to buy products costing several thousand dollars is due to another activity. Because Hodinkee is one of the leading media companies when it comes to watches and the associated industry. Around 20 editors and photographers work for the company and publish content in text, images, video and audio — always on the topic of (luxury) watches.The fact that Hodinkee is involved in e-commerce at all goes back to Clymer’s experience. Because when a reader told him that he had bought a particular watch because of a blog post, the watch fanatic realized.
The danger of endangering the integrity of one’s own reporting through the new mainstay was a big issue at the beginning, says Clymer. “In the beginning we discussed it almost every day. But today that’s no longer a big issue.”In addition to e-commerce and traditional media business — Hodinkee has no paywall, but makes money from advertising — the company has a third revenue stream: insurance. Although these are still negligible today, they are a growth area for Clymer. Watch owners can have their pieces insured completely dynamically via the Hodinkee app. “Many users have some of their watches in a safe. But as soon as they actively wear them, they can insure them – and only then pay for them.”The fact that Hodinkee was able to grow so big is not only due to the market environment, but also to it. The watch industry experienced an enormous boom in the last decade, with brands such as Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Omega becoming status symbols. “When we started,” says Clymer, “nobody talked about watches. Not on YouTube, not even at parties.
Today it’s different.” Through collaborations with brands, which create Hodinkee’s own collections, but also through the use of prominent watch collectors — such as Ed Sheeran, Kevin Hart or John Mayer, who is also a Hodinkee investor — Hodinkee also built itself over the a community across the scene. But here too, Clymer sees opportunities to improve. “We want to be profitable with every single watch we sell.”
Ben Clymer comes from a “middle-class family,” as he puts it himself. Both parents are teachers, and his interest in watches was sparked early on when his grandfather gave him an Omega Speedmaster. Clymer started collecting, but after university he decided to work for the major Swiss bank UBS in New York. In 2008 he left the bank with severance pay in the wake of the financial crisis. He enrolled at Columbia University, where he studied journalism, and started Hodinkee at the same time. The platform grew continuously and today Hodinkee is a small watch empire.
But the company’s success also had negative sides for Clymer. “I studied Hodinkee every day for ten years,” says Clymer. “And at the expense of my physical and mental health. I needed a break.” Clymer left the then CEO to run the company and (also) devoted himself to other issues. He spent more time with his family and also founded the golf platform Fairgame, his second passion. In addition to Eric Mayville, golf professional Adam Scott is also part of the founding team, which wants to build a community around the sport — similar to Strava for cyclists and Komoot for hikers.
But for Clymer, all of this is just the beginning. The Hodinkee founder can imagine being a part of Hodinkee history for a long time to come. “I enjoy doing it and I’m good at it. I would have no problem playing a role in Hodinkee for a long time – whatever that may be.”
