Such is the growing scope of the business, we could have placed Ben Clymer and Hodinkee in three Hot 100 categories: American Trailblazer, Inspiring Independent as a retailer, or a major Media & Influencer personality.
Not bad for a man who launched the company from his dorm room simply because he loved writing about watches.
A funding round of $40 million at the end of 2020 valued Hodinkee at about $100 million.
This ushered in a period of investment to expand its retail business as an authorized dealer for 40 brands and its pre-owned offer, which was turbocharged after the acquisition of Crown & Caliber just weeks after the investment injection.
“Content is everything.”
Ben has handed over day-to-day management of the company to a new chief executive, Jeffery Fowler, who joined from Farfetch in March this year.
That leaves Hodinkee’s founder and executive chairman with a little more freedom to steer the editorial direction of the business and to hang out with watch-loving celebrities like Ed Sheeran and Tom Brady.
Ben now makes key judgments over the sometimes competing demands as an authorized dealer and a media operation, but fundamentally he believes Hodinkee’s future depends on retaining and growing its audience of about 3 million visitors per month.
“Content is everything,” he says.
“We have a track record of that. Content is my background and Jack Forster’s background. We feel really good about the future of our content development. It might surprise some folks, but we believe the future is all about content.”
