A lot of assumptions that people are “jealous” of Hodinkee’s (or by extension Ben’s) success in these pages as well as other Hodinkee critical conversation. Is this real? Is anyone ACTUALLY sitting at their computer seething that their online watch blog didn’t make it big and capitalize on consumer habits the way Hodinkee did? I tend to think it’s a fairly small (like really small) number of people who could possibly be in a position to come close to comparing let alone be jealous. From my perspective it’s be like me being jealous of Henry Ford for thinking of the assembly line.
However, if what everyone REALLY means is they’re annoyed at consumer tendencies and Hodinkee making money from it - sure. Annoyed that Hodinkee popularized and monetized a hobby ruining it for anyone who isn’t a well-heeled Wall Street investor - okay. I can get on board with these. But jealousy? I just don’t see it. I think that whole line of thought just needs to get dropped. It’s a dead end, illogical train of thought used to defend Hodinkee and deride those who are annoyed with Hodinkee.
Interesting thoughts on here.
But Hodinkee is a now a full-on LIFESTYLE BRAND. Yes, they began as an enthusiast-related website, but once they made a ton of money selling that first LE with Blancpain -- I believe $1,000,000.00 USD of product moved within a few hours -- the dye was cast. Since then, its been a slow but steady march toward "outgrowing" its bloggy roots into becominh a full-on BRAND. I suspect that this didn't happen sooner was in large part the reluctance of the Swiss to fully embrace and understand the online world, but once Hodinkee proved it could influence trends and move very expensive product, the Swiss and the money followed. And COVID supercharged all this. And now Hodinkee is flush with $40+ million dollars of VC money and celebrity investors, like John Mayer and Tom Brady.
I just received a Hodinkee survey. It's clear what the next steps are -- reconfiguring content and selling more than watches and accessories. The most interesting thing about the survey, to me, were the background questions. They asked about interests and provided a pre-set list. What was interesting was what was included, and what was not.
Included: art, architecture, automotive, boating, golfing, design. JEWELRY, literature, SHOPPING, photography . . .
Not included: Diving, hiking, football (American or the proper kind), running, exercise, and basically any activity that requires significant movement and action. All for a website where the vast majority of its regular readership, and I am betting over 90%, is male. Hodinkee is consciously becoming an "anti-bro-culture lifestyle brand."
I have to say, it all sounds far too effete for me (shopping, really?!), but I have the give Clymer props. He has recognized a market need and has exploited it, and took a glacially slow adapting, incestuous, tradition-heavy and hidebound industry facing its second existential crisis in 40 years along with him. Forty million dollars of VC money (and counting) all from an enthusiast-driven blog covering a relatively niche product for old men.
Besides, it isn't like there is a paucity of watch-enthusiast content out there. If anything, there is too much, all writing for same thing at the same time.
