In all honesty, this is the kind of thing I would usually blow money on - look at my Avatar name! If it had JLC or Hermes on the dial and was anything up to $1500, I probably would have shipped it in without even stopping to examine the quality (but I assume if those two put their name on it, it would actually be nice quality). Like many other watch nerds, I had been eagerly awaiting this launch after the mystery teaser posts etc.
As soon as I saw the name on the dial, it was an automatic pass, then I literally had to do a reload double take when I saw the price - what in the actual Fck ?! I don’t even buy their leather goods because they have HODINKEE stamped on them. It’s actually offensive that they think they themselves are automatically a luxury brand without putting any actual effort into that particular process. Creating a new luxury brand that can charge this kind of money is downright hard, but it can be done. Look at Metier leather goods. Somewhere I read Cara’s rebuttal of the criticism referring to the price of new versus vintage Cartier clocks, and it made me fume.
Although I still obviously look at the site, similar to
@abrod520, being based (mainly now) in NYC I have had the opportunity to closely watch their growth and meet them all over the years, and sadly have been increasingly turned off by the attitude and arrogance in more recent times. Not that they need my sympathies, but I feel sorry for the two honest and decent chaps that are left there, James and Jason, being associated with this kind of branding farce. I also think it’s pretty funny how they have dug themselves into a deeper hole by the way they have handled their own process to the reaction. Reminds me of the Bremont-gate in house movement debacle.