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Business is not booming for Hodinkee
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Archer
··Omega Qualified WatchmakerLotta well deserved bashing of the Dink here over the years.
FIFY.
I understand if you were fan this thread and the others over the years might offend you, but when they told collectors early on never to buy a vintage watch without seeing a photo of the movement, and then sold vintage watches without photos of the movement, that should tell you something. That's only one example - the effusive praise of that VC chronograph as something like "the most important release in years" coincidentally (I'm sure) right before they offered a collaboration piece with that same model. I'm sure that fact that collab was coming didn't affect their review of the initial brand release at all, right?
I think people here rightly smelled what was going on there years ago, and now it's all coming home to roost. Unfortunate for the employees that are affected, but that's not our fault - it's the fault of the people in charge there.
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Mark020
··not the sharpest pencil in the ΩF drawerTried to scale an enthusiast site/blog into something bigger. It failed.
I always quote the great longshoreman philosopher, Eric Hoffer, "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket". This is the norm, hard to find many examples that don't follow this path to some extent.
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Thommas
·For anyone feeling bad about Hodinkee's flailing business and wanting to extend a helping hand... the Travel Clock is still available for purchase. Gosh, it hasn't even gotten hit with inflation tax. Let's see if OF members can get their business back in the black.
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/limited/products/hodinkee-eight-day-clock-limited-edition
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/limited/products/hodinkee-eight-day-clock-limited-edition
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BlackTalon
··This Space for RentThey didn't 'scale' -- they expanded their business to include other types of services. And as others have mentioned, it was done with a "we'll do as we do, not as we said" attitude.
As far as 'honest people' loosing their jobs, I imagine sales jobs are available at other places. And in general a contraction in timepiece salespeople was probably inevitable as the covid wave neared shore.
As far as 'honest people' loosing their jobs, I imagine sales jobs are available at other places. And in general a contraction in timepiece salespeople was probably inevitable as the covid wave neared shore.
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RevZMan123
·For anyone feeling bad about Hodinkee's flailing business and wanting to extend a helping hand... the Travel Clock is still available for purchase. Gosh, it hasn't even gotten hit with inflation tax. Let's see if OF members can get their business back in the black.
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/limited/products/hodinkee-eight-day-clock-limited-edition
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Larry S
··Color Commentator for the Hyperbole.FIFY.
I understand if you were fan this thread and the others over the years might offend you, but when they told collectors early on never to buy a vintage watch without seeing a photo of the movement, and then sold vintage watches without photos of the movement, that should tell you something. That's only one example - the effusive praise of that VC chronograph as something like "the most important release in years" coincidentally (I'm sure) right before they offered a collaboration piece with that same model. I'm sure that fact that collab was coming didn't affect their review of the initial brand release at all, right?
I think people here rightly smelled what was going on there years ago, and now it's all coming home to roost. Unfortunate for the employees that are affected, but that's not our fault - it's the fault of the people in charge there.
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TexOmega
·For anyone feeling bad about Hodinkee's flailing business and wanting to extend a helping hand... the Travel Clock is still available for purchase. Gosh, it hasn't even gotten hit with inflation tax. Let's see if OF members can get their business back in the black.
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/limited/products/hodinkee-eight-day-clock-limited-edition
Fooey on that, I just deeded over my house to them! That's how much I love and want to support there efforts to retire in luxury.
Who wants to join me in helping out?
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JwRosenthal
·Besides the shady watch slinging, they also wandered into “lifestyle” products and that was their death IMO. It’s an incredibly fickle market- let LVMH do their thing and stay in your lane.
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JwRosenthal
·
Clymer’s “what Leica means to me” article upon its release was filled with sappy nostalgia and a few humble brags about his growing Leica collection- as soon as I read he owned the Hermes collab I knew exactly who he was- Leica is jewelry to him- as it most likely is to the majority of the readers who bought the ghost edition new.
The old joke was that photographers were always the second owners of Leica’s- after the doctors and lawyers. Now I guess we have to get in line after the influencers and lifestyle aspirants.
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krogerfoot
·Of course it’s all too easy to mock Hodinkee for its oily fetishization of luxury goods. But remember, it’s also fun and good to do so.
Really, I get the discomfort. It is a bit rich for people on a watch forum—people like us—to cast stones. Again, quite a few of us here got into watches in large part due to Hodinkee’s articles. They did have some good writers whose enthusiasm for watches came through. The watches were photographed beautifully and there was a democratic spirit underneath, where it was perfectly fine to nerd out over a new addition, whether it cost eighty bucks or a hundred times that.
So later when Hodinkee is taking a $10,000 camera and selling it as a $15K bauble, or putting a “retailed by Sears” watch in its shop with a $1300 price tag on it, it’s a hard stride in the opposite direction. The arrow swung away from collectors-as-enthusiasts and toward the conviction that these items should be more expensive. That’s what gets up my nose so bad about Hodinkee.
Other members here have better insights than I do about Hodinkee’s failures as scholars and historians and, most seriously, journalists. I don’t actually care much about the company’s lifestyle brand business and I don’t begrudge dealers trying to make a living. I do know that a publication with six editors on the masthead should care more about proofreading their articles than they apparently do.
Really, I get the discomfort. It is a bit rich for people on a watch forum—people like us—to cast stones. Again, quite a few of us here got into watches in large part due to Hodinkee’s articles. They did have some good writers whose enthusiasm for watches came through. The watches were photographed beautifully and there was a democratic spirit underneath, where it was perfectly fine to nerd out over a new addition, whether it cost eighty bucks or a hundred times that.
So later when Hodinkee is taking a $10,000 camera and selling it as a $15K bauble, or putting a “retailed by Sears” watch in its shop with a $1300 price tag on it, it’s a hard stride in the opposite direction. The arrow swung away from collectors-as-enthusiasts and toward the conviction that these items should be more expensive. That’s what gets up my nose so bad about Hodinkee.
Other members here have better insights than I do about Hodinkee’s failures as scholars and historians and, most seriously, journalists. I don’t actually care much about the company’s lifestyle brand business and I don’t begrudge dealers trying to make a living. I do know that a publication with six editors on the masthead should care more about proofreading their articles than they apparently do.
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JwRosenthal
·Of course it’s all too easy to mock Hodinkee for its oily fetishization of luxury goods. But remember, it’s also fun and good to do so.
Really, I get the discomfort. It is a bit rich for people on a watch forum—people like us—to cast stones. Again, quite a few of us here got into watches in large part due to Hodinkee’s articles. They did have some good writers whose enthusiasm for watches came through. The watches were photographed beautifully and there was a democratic spirit underneath, where it was perfectly fine to nerd out over a new addition, whether it cost eighty bucks or a hundred times that.
So later when Hodinkee is taking a $10,000 camera and selling it as a $15K bauble, or putting a “retailed by Sears” watch in its shop with a $1300 price tag on it, it’s a hard stride in the opposite direction. The arrow swung away from collectors-as-enthusiasts and toward the conviction that these items should be more expensive. That’s what gets up my nose so bad about Hodinkee.
Other members here have better insights than I do about Hodinkee’s failures as scholars and historians and, most seriously, journalists. I don’t actually care much about the company’s lifestyle brand business and I don’t begrudge dealers trying to make a living. I do know that a publication with six editors on the masthead should care more about proofreading their articles than they apparently do.
This isn’t new, we saw this with Sterephile magazine in the 80’s when they moved from fairly unbiased (and sometimes scathing) reviews to plugging the brands that sponsored them…it was incredibly transparent.
I recall an issue that got many here up in arms was a sales listing they had for a rather rare UG diver (if I recall the watch) that was a cobbled mess. The UG experts here spotted the issues immediately but their listing glazed over all the issues and failed to show specific photos that would have highlighted those issues (seemed more like intentional omission than oversight). I recall from the thread that it was a consignment piece- most likely from a friend of one of the owners/writers/employees or a very good customer for whom they were doing a favor. That is the slippery slope when you claim to be experts in the field and then sling some sub-par shit and assume nobody would question it.
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STANDY
··schizophrenic pizza orderer and watch collectorYea … they certainly were guilty of a lot of BS and were rightly poked at, but they had some good writers and content over the years despite their commercial excesses.
They had a few good writers when they were writing early on, but the minute they started selling vintage watches and the staff increased 10 fold. The bullshit stories about the writer whipping off to the Caribbean for a week on a diving trip to try out a watch they had for a day and using the press photos that came out a few weeks later via the watches media team.
Tell me about the watch, but don’t make up mythical stories of fluff of your never actually travelled experience with said watch.
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JPE.88305
·The last several posts are what I love about this forum. Well said.
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0002s
·They zigged when they should have zagged. Their transformation from watch enthusiast content to social lifestyle content, pushed away their core base and didn’t attract enough of a new base. They invested in the vintage market at the wrong time. Expended to much in staff and brick and mortar at the wrong time. Now the venture capital sugar high is wearing off and they will cut back to profitability.
The question is, will their current model be sustainable long term? Who knows, but the “what outfits to wear with a Cartier Tank” article was interesting.
The question is, will their current model be sustainable long term? Who knows, but the “what outfits to wear with a Cartier Tank” article was interesting.
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JwRosenthal
·… but the “what outfits to wear with a Cartier Tank” article was interesting.
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Tony C.
··Ωf Jury memberSome may find this 2016 exchange that I had with "Louis", who was at the time the head of vintage sales at Hodinkee, to be interesting and/or amusing. I had taken exception to Hodinkee's misuse of the word "Calatrava" in a sales listing. 😁
Let me begin by echoing others in saying that Louis deserves credit for engaging the (largely) skeptical rabble, and I think that I can speak for other forum members in saying that we appreciate the effort.
Having said that, I find his above quote to be truly remarkable, and not in a positive sense. This is from Patek Philippe's own website, under "History", in 1932:
How, exactly, is it possible that someone apparently tasked with overseeing vintage sales at such a high-profile (now) dealer could make such a basic mistake? Or perhaps the manufacturer has made an error on their website that Louis would like to correct (that's a joke).
In fact, on Hodinkee's own website, there are references to the well-documented status of the ref. 96, rendering Louis' erroneous claim even more bizarre. Here's just one example, from a 5/28/14 article:
Furthermore, on what possible basis does he get the idea that prior to the mid-'80s Calatrava models were not dress watches? Preposterous!
Finally, while he admits that the use of "Calatrava" is "technically" incorrect, he attempts to justify its use in this case by asserting that:
A specific case shape? As in round? Coupled with a thin bezel?
Please, Louis.
Regards,
Tony C.
LouisH;27400962 said:About the Calatrava, I agree with you that factually speaking its use here is incorrect. Actually, even using Calatrava for a Patek 96 is factually wrong as Patek only started describing their dressy range with this word in the mid-1980s.
Louis
Let me begin by echoing others in saying that Louis deserves credit for engaging the (largely) skeptical rabble, and I think that I can speak for other forum members in saying that we appreciate the effort.
Having said that, I find his above quote to be truly remarkable, and not in a positive sense. This is from Patek Philippe's own website, under "History", in 1932:
"Patek Philippe produces the first model of the Calatrava collection, the Ref. 96."
In fact, on Hodinkee's own website, there are references to the well-documented status of the ref. 96, rendering Louis' erroneous claim even more bizarre. Here's just one example, from a 5/28/14 article:
"Patek's Calatrava is truly a category-defining wristwatch. Introduced in the 1930s in the small size of 30.6mm in Reference 96..."
Finally, while he admits that the use of "Calatrava" is "technically" incorrect, he attempts to justify its use in this case by asserting that:
Over time, this term started describing a dress watch with a specific case shape and a thin bezel, as the Omega offers.
Please, Louis.
Regards,
Tony C.
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0002s
·That I don’t mind at all- seriously, the versatility of a watch that’s known to be a “dress watch” is an interesting article to those who love watches. It was the- what to wear with a Cartier tank…perhaps our Flannel ball cap with H on it (79.95) paired with Chambray shirt with H logo on the cuff (189.95) and don’t forget our every day leather satchel (595.95) in which you can be seen slumming it on the streets of SoHo with your Ghost Leica ($1499.99) hiking the urban tundra in our Redwing collab boots ($799.99).
Social Lifestyle commentary presented to watch enthusiasts. What could go wrong?
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-cartier-tank-cintree
How To Wear It The Cartier Tank Cintrée
A vintage watch made modern.
The comments are priceless.
Look 1: The deconstructed suit.
Look 2: Sweatsuit and penny loafers.
Look 3: The return to Preppy.
