What John says is 100% true. About a year, year and a half ago, Hodinkee published an article about climate change. In the comments section, I wrote respectfully that folks go to Hodinkee for watch content, NOT to get lectured about "saving the planet." MY comments were removed, and I got blocked by Hodinkee. Good riddance.

I think the departure of Jack Forster cannot be underestimated, both as a symptom of Hodinkee’s decline and a catalyst for its further decline.

THE HODINKEE TRAVEL CLOCK

The heart of Hodinkee for many of us was Jack Forster who was an amazing journalist of all things horological possessed of great intellect and wit. When he departed, I lost interest in all things Hodinkee including their quarterly magazine to which I subscribed.

Hodinkee is super pretentious from day 1

People are really sick of having social issues infiltrate every part of their lives, whether they like it or not. It's puzzling as to why when an organisation grows, they stray from the path that gave them success. I used to read Hodinkee to learn about the crazy little details that differentiated to different watches that to the casual consumer looked exactly the same, or the collector that for years searched for a particular reference, and travelled half way around the world in it's pursuit, Or the paratrooper that was issued a Tudor sub and the stories associated with it. Not some crap about climate change, or some freak show wearing a Chopard Alpine dressed in his mothers clothing.

I followed Hodinkee until they started selling the limited edition cash grab watches.

What happened is they lost Jon, Jack, Stephen, and Cara in the span of 1 year and Ben decided he didn’t want to contribute anymore. James was the only good remaining content producer, and it’s clear his strong preference is for Grey NATO type content vs. Hodinkee. Brooklyn groupthink killed this brand - shame.

Thank you for your balanced, well-reasoned commentary. I point to the talent that left Hodinkee, Forster and others, as the most unfortunate aspect of their shift in emphasis. Those folks are not going to return. Again, thank you.

So Hodinkee has morphed into Cosmopolitan.

I'll never understand why every company feels the need to expand endlessly. I mean, I guess this makes me a communist, but how much money is enough money? Why dilute what you do best?

They used to be good, but then they thought themselves too important

Ben Clymer sold most of his shares so he is all set

Couldn’t agree more, JP…Jory The Time Teller has been sounding this alarm for the past few years. Imagine if Subaru decided to slow production of Foresters and WRXs to try their hand at the “luxury” market segment. That’d be a recipe for disaster. They know who keeps the lights on…and don’t kowtow to investor pressure.

Glad I have my Hodinkee Travel Clock.

I’ll say something positive just to mix things up. I like the Hodinkee Watch insurance. I’ve had it for a couple of years. Reasonable pricing and easy to sign up for in minutes with no hassles.

You are seeing more of Ben Clymer (founder of Hodinkee) in their video content. I don’t think that is an accident.

Even Ben is not the same guy. On the last video he did about Daytonas he said he is now only interested in precious metals, not steel, he said steel is no longer special to him or something like that. That made me cringe, the whole thing went to his head I think, he started caring more about his celebrity friends I guess than true watch enthusiasts.

Reminds me of Rolex initially only watch collectors would buy at least one Rolex from an AD now watch collectors avoid the ADs at all costs. But to be fair it worked for Rolex to alienate their customers.

Guessing before watching the video - they bought into their own hype? Edit: Yup, they did. I guess the "celebrity" rubbed off from John Mayer over to Ben and others. Well, its obvious isn't it? These guys at Hodinkee always wanted to belong to the upper echelons of the watch world. Hodinkee became the way to gain popularity, money and connections. They got lucky and it happened! Now, they reached their goal. No matter who says what, they are set. Hondinkee can go down the drain, which it has, but doesn't matter - they are in the safe zone. Got valuable contacts on speedial. Viewers were the real idiots who thought they were out to build a community, like buyers of OnePlus phones are idiots to think OnePlus wanted to create a great affordable phone. No, OnePlus wanted to be Apple, and guess what? A quick look at the average Hodinkee reader and guests on Hodinkee will tell you all you need to know about the company's aspirations. Like the average viewer or Lex Friedman podcast and the guests on that podcast. Lex wants to be close to the guests, not the average guy. The average folks will provide him with fame, money and contacts.

"Sad" downfall? Nah...they've been so awful, so snotty, and so comically elitist for such a long time that their demise can't be anything but sweet schadenfreude. They've made it embarrassing to be an enthusiast and I think the hobby is far better off without their voice in the mix.

Absolutely right. Hodibkee simply got greedy I think. Hodinkee founders have ties with Wall Street traders if I’m not wrong. Corporate world saw growing segment and took over the watch enthusiast segment with the plan to mainstreem it and now they are pushing ever more luxury piece with higher pricetags. corporate luxury and corporate business taking over. But guess what we enthusiast can’t be fooled. We know what to buy and what to like, how to make icon. I bet many morons will lose money down the road.

Thank you for your opinions and views on Hodinkee. They really went for the easy money with the recent expansion towards the casual consumer. Its difficult for a sales driven business to move away from pure aficionado content. Hope they figure out a balance. I enjoy their "Reference Points" videos about various classic wrist watches. It really helps in developing a love, recognition, and appreciation for vintage and modern time pieces.

Hodinkee is like that one nerdy friend who manages to get in with the cool crowd and then slowly but surely abandons the real people in their life that don’t have the right social cred.

Good opinions and well articulated I guess my only gripe is the under exposed video

Bah they don’t need regular people. Their average customer has a salary of 500k a year and a net worth of several million dollars.

I have a few counterpoints to the new content style that Hodinkee is putting out. I feel like as the outlet becomes bigger, I think it's perfectly fine to try out different types of content that is outside of what watch enthusiasts want. Just because they are putting out content that aren't necessarily for watch enthusiasts, it doesn't mean they're NOT putting out content that still makes Hodinkee, Hodinkee. There are still new episodes of Talking Watches, Week on the Wrists, Podcasts, Photo Reports, Auction Reports, In Depth's, etc. Let's also not forget that Hodinkee is usually the first to give us proper hands on with live photos of any new important watch. If Hodinkee only followed what watch enthusiasts want, all we'd be getting are stories on topics that have been absolutely beaten to death (Best Watches Under $5,000, Best Watches for the Summer, Why The Omega Speeedmaster Should Be Part of Your Collection, etc.). This is why I think watch KZfaq has gotten so stale in recent years because KZfaqrs are too afraid to talk about anything outside of Rolex, Omega, Seiko (Grand Seiko), and Tudor because it's what their audience wants. Do we really need 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year updates on the Black Bay 54? I agree with you that Hodinkee hasn't been quite the same since Jack Forster left. I don't think I've ever once clicked on a "Pre-Owned Picks" article or "Shop Spotlight" article. However, they are putting out content that I thought was interesting. I thought Malaika's tour of Paris was very good. It was interesting for me to see how European watch culture is so different than it is here in the US. The Talking Watches guests in the past 6 months have still been good for the most part. Any new "In-Depth" article that comes out is usually pretty interesting.

100% agreed, dont ignore/alienate your core audience. It baffled me to think how with the number of GMT watches that have been coming out in the past few years, none seems (at least to me) to been reviewed on video by James Stacy, Mr. GMT himself! I have owned and sold a Tudor GMT over the past couple of years and I still re-watch his Tudor GMT review video on the big screen from time to time just to experience it again. They have not only been losing top talents but they have also not been playing the ones they have to their strengths.

They alienated their original reader base in an effort to expand their reader base. Whatever... They dug their own hole, but articles like the wife swapping thing was low - even by their new standards. Non-psychopaths do not typically treat people the same way they treat wristwatches. 🤔

Excellent John. Very insightful.

Hodinkee's 'chat gatherings' at Watches and Wonders were a sad display of superficiality. The 'my favourite (often $100k plus) watches released' were especially cringeworthy.

I think James Stacy still sticks to watch content....I skip over content by any other author/writer.

Hodinkee was always poised to be a lifestyle brand and you can see the evolution in their magazine. Regardless of who owns major stake, or acquisitions, they positioned themselves as a content generator of mid to high end watches, and enthusiasts are not always in that target segment. It was the travel clock that positioned them as the butt of the joke. And they never were able to reach the masses like LVMH thought they would, and instead only the enthusiast (who's now lost interest in the brand).

"New at Dunder/Mifflin Paper Company....the Dunder/Mifflin Social Network: where the cool people go to talk about paper, life and all the whatnots!"

JP - a good view expressed , good explanation . be safe ~ JDS/CT

A business doesn't need to be worth a billion dollars to be considered successful. Ownership wasn't content with being a blog and a retailer of accessories like watch straps. Greed caused the business to grow (and then implode) like a supernova.

Started going downhill when it changed from magazine to catalog

I think you’re too kind. Watching super rich celebrities gush about their flex watch collection (and how quickly they get ‘the call’) is just nasty and condescending. And not sure I’ll be hanging around for the potential redemption arc. One bit of advice - you put up numerous images with text but didn’t leave them up long enough to read.

I like Ben and Hodinkee but haven't followed too much lately. I liked it at the level where Ben did the interviews and it wasn't about his sweater or his car. Maybe there is a level at which they can return and be Hodinkee at their best. Ben used to talk about his family connection to watches, we like that !!!!!!!

I think the recent talking watches have been great like Ed Sheeran and Ronnie Fieg, but every article is advertising pre owned watches in their shop. It’s so annoying

Empty case and/or display only watches collectors understand. Who doesn't understand is the rolex normal historic customer who is going to walk in maybe 2 times in their lifetime for milestone purchases. Those people built rolex and rolex needs to fix this to keep them. They didn't get sustainability to 1m watches a year by selling to collectors. They are the opposite of hodinkee, so they have an equal but opposite death spiral they need to avoid.

Not sure what you’re talking about, I love the online J. Peterman catalog …

This was a great vid. To add to the many comments, yes I thought Jack Fosters departure was an enormous loss but I also really missed the adventure stories namely by Jason Heaton, Cole etc. Hodinkee has lost its sense of fun and the comments section does not seem to reflect that of a tight knit community anymore. As an previous avid reader since 2014, Hodinkee def lost my attention over the past year of so.

Thankyou JonP

Can you make a video on everything you need to know about watches when making an ad for them

Changes to return back to their core product, maybe position themselves like revolution with an eccentric charismatic millionaire type with information as a product targeted towards new money types would probably work if the corporate shells didn’t have accountants running the ship. Also, like politics, finding someone who is generally universally liked is a massive hurdle. Also, the $$$$$ travel clock…

HUBRIS...they started to believe in their own PR (with the wealthiest guy on the Planet - LMVH owner, feeling their collar in the background) - what WAS their business model and what MIGHT be their current business model tells all we need to know! here's a clue --- IT'S ALL ABOUT THEIR FIXED COSTS......simples guys, don't try to over think this one....

LVMH don’t want/need to sell watches to people who will buy watches anyway.. they want non watch wearers to get into the hobby so they write articles for non watch enthusiasts

John Nails it! spot on.

The founder married a writer (only a decent article under her belt), the only one/two who knew about watches went solo, hired a bunch of useless ‘content creators’. What can go wrong?

John is a great story teller ❤

There is a conflict of interest between reviewing watches and selling them at the same time.

Many thanks, John You are absolutely genius. Nizar

I do Watch swapping ❤😊😊

Hi John, how come your video quality is little dark…maybe a lighting issue?

Hodinkee started going to shit when John Mayer and LVMH started investing in the company back in 2020. From that point onward Hodinkee started to try to appeal to a larger audience instead of what made it successful for so many years (watch enthusiasts and watch collectors). One of the first signs of its downfalls were that reviews started to feel more like advertorials instead of reviews. The editors could only name positive things about the watches that they tried on, which makes me feel that the only goal of those articles was to market this watches with high-quality wrist shots and the Hodinkee brand name slapped behind it. I enjoyed the recent Talking Watches episodes with Ed Sheeran and Ronnie Fieg. But I couldn’t care less about the television and sports celebrities that they brought on who label themselves as “collectors” while only showing hype pieces and talking about watches being good “investments”.

I used to subscribe to their magazine, which was high quality, but I think they disappeared up their own butt when they started selling Driving gloves at around $800 and let’s not forget the travel clock. Make no mistake, they were the voice among collectors and enthusiasts. You just have to look at who’s not there any more-Jack Forster, Stephen Pulvirent and Cole Pennington are the main names to leave. Most of the ones there now are fairly forgettable, although I have to give James Stacey credit for going strong, but for how much longer. It is sad to see the demise, but it has lost its core readership.

I had no idea all the things going on with Hodinkee. For last 2 year or so I've completely wrote them off as pretentious, tasteless, and cringe. I also used to find a lot of cool and neat watches on Crown & Caliber, and have bought so many from them. But I noticed also in the last 2 years I've stopped browsing their inventory as it has gotten more and more basic and derivative, basically Reddit watches. Now it all make sense.

We'll always have Brodinkee.

The truth in this video made me sub to your channel. Thank you for calling them out.

Spot on video.

I remember the Bethany Frankel video. Most of the watches she discussed were gifted by whomever was her boyfriend at the time.

With such fierce competition in the media market, e.g. blogs, videos, pod casts, any downfall is more likely fatal. Hodinkee's fate certainly isn't good. Thankfully we have Watchfinder from England 😁

That Chopard fashion design one was the worst. So bad.

Great take John!

I noticed this when Ben Clymer started to become more and more visible again. Doing the stuff he did himself when Hodinkee was just starting. Hope they break it off with LVMH (sorry, I have my very strong opinions re Bernard Arnault lol) and refocus on what they do best!

100% correct.

Ben Sold Out!

Hood-wink-ee never liked them from the start

A lot of speculation here. Like an awful lot. Very few people have any clue how a private company is really doing in truth. A lot of the complaints seem to stem from Hodinkee's dilution of its content. Which not only is understandable it was the goal from very early on. As watch-collecting, owning, and shopping becomes more mainstream - so will magazines' coverage of it. The amount of people who know about, can afford and want a niche brand has expanded, they are are not the hardcore collectors of yesteryear. They want a couple nice watches or few and understand there's a full world beyond Rolex. These people vastly outnumber hardcore collectors, so naturally Hodinkee will want to cater to these types of customer.

Ship Sinkey

My question is, why don't they go back to doing whatever made them great in the first place. Wouldn't this fix their problem and prevent them from going under. Or is it just too late.

I had stopped going to Hodinkee when it became too corporate, and I just did not trust what they were selling.

Time and Tide is my go to lately.

Interesting video but comments about “corporate interests” are over-stated. No where do you mention that John Mayer and Tom Brady are investors - both are watch collectors and John is very knowledgeable. Chernin group was the lead investor, not LVMH. It’s funded by many individuals as well as VC - goal is to capitalize company so it can expand - quite common - they can’t be compared to Federico. Two very different operations

TBH I have heard of them but never seen their content at all... I like watchfinder, andrew morgan, and some of the smaller channels. I guess I'll continue to do what I was already doing and not watch them.

Your right there talking watches videos came an absolute joke all it was were celebrities and their Daytonas and nothing ever interesting or unique in those videos. You think if they were really enthusiasts and had all the money in the world they would have more then 10 Daytona and a Royal Oak

A lot of it had to do with “timing”… they expanded at the wrong time and incorrectly thought 2020-2021 would continue on

Spot on!

The “life style brand” label is usually used as a compliment (for brands like Ferrari or Rolex). There’s nothing more pathetic than a brand that thinks it’s a “lifestyle brand” when it isn’t. Interesting how many of the watch brands that enthusiasts like to disparage as high priced & poor quality, belong to the same conglomerate that destroyed hoestinky.

When you take on corporate investors like LVMH the business isn't yours anymore. Stable incremental growth YoY is no longer enough. Every quarter you're going to need to reiterate your plan for how you're going to "10x" readership and convert that readership to watch shop sales or ad clicks at a higher % than last quarter. If you don't do this you are failing and will be made to change editorial stuff dramatically to try and adjust. Unless Ben or the staff buy back the company from the investors, I don't see an offramp to the decline here

Spitting truth

Rather then doubling down on the watch geeks’ niche (because guys, we gotta be honest here, ours is a niche market) they tried to expand the pie going to lifestyle and selling watches to then understand that those were not where their core fans wanted to go. Hope they will learn the lesson before will be too late.

Well said

Not really a surprise. I like watches but they always seem like trinkets for the wrist, same as ladies and purses and shoes. Horological always makes me chuckle.

Just left a maison LVMH acquired. I promise you, when LVMH comes in all the good people leave and whats left are a bunch of new execs focused on impressing LVMH and all the old people not talented or driven enough to find a new job.

I think I stopped reading Hodinkee articles around the time they started selling $5000 alarm clocks.

Used to love Hodinkee. Haven’t bothered with anything Hodinkee related in years now. They went away from everything that made them different and interesting.

Hodinkee’s trajectory towards desired but ultimately unsustainable growth resulted in a loss of identity.

At the beginning it was nice. Any self respecting bloke read fratello these days. I’ve been sort of thinking maybe I should do this myself and start writing watch articles.

Yeah totally true. I heard they laid off more people, now only 30 out of 150 prior to layoffs are left

That’s the problem with ma t companies. It’s no longer about the craft, it’s about milking the readers

I almost bought their watch insurance. Guess that's not happening.

Hey.... what to you mean?!?!.. we don't look like this?!?!

This is all sad but true. Greed has taken over.

I think as a company, they are successful and very similar to how many brands outside the watch world grow and get acquired by investors. That’s normally when things change, and normally they will start alienating their core audience of people who supported the company in the same place. It’s kinda sad but I guess that’s how the world of capitalism works. When it goes mainstream, it will always ditch the people who supported them at the beginning. 😢

I got into watches like two months ago so I'm new and saw some video from them but it got me confused bc hodinky means watches in Slovak and y is read like ee in English so I thought it was a Slovak Channel lol

The moment investors (LVMH) came on board, shit started.

Design-wise, Hodinkee does the best collabs--Oris, Timex, Longines, e.g.

Listen, like it or not, Hodinkee has changed, trying to position themselves to a broader audience. The only people upset are the people who want Hodinkee to be the small niche brand it started from but we all know what happens if you stay small. Keep your personal feelings out of it b/c it’s business and let’s see if they can become better what they are now. Not trying to be mean but most people won’t know what Del Rey watches are. Only enthusiasts will. Hodinkee has a much broader audience now so they are susceptible to more opinions. That’s something they have to except. They need to do better, I agree. Especially on the customer connection side. You can’t even talk to a representative on the phone anymore. What is that? But C,mon, much of the watch community has gotten here through Hodinkee. Let’s not forget. But I’m with the frustrated people who know Hodinkee should be better.