A Note On The Future Of Hodinkee
Hey Guys, Ben here. You know, the guy who started this blog called Hodinkee. I thought it was time to check in with everyone because there’s been a lot said about this little company recently – some of it true, a lot of it not, and almost none of it by us.
All this chatter got me thinking about what is next for this company I love. How can we make it better? After some personal reflection, we all decided that the new Hodinkee looks a lot like – well – the “old Hodinkee.”
Today I am here to tell you that moving forward Hodinkee’s primary focus will once again be creating the world’s most detailed, engaging, and entertaining watch content. Sorry, but you’re gonna have to live with fewer emails offering $300 off your next pre-owned Rolex hitting your inbox.
I’d like to say that our focus never wavered from delivering the best content, first and foremost – but the truth is, things did change. And the last few years have been challenging because of it. I’ll spare you the details (only because I know everyone else already has not spared us from anything at all), but suffice it to say, we’ve learned a lot. And now it’s time to get back to basics.
As of today, we aren’t going to be adding any more pre-owned watches to Hodinkee or Crown & Caliber. Nor will we add any new models to our modern watch business. Instead, we’ll be dedicating our efforts to evolving our editorial into something truly special and industry-leading. What will you see here on the front page of Hodinkee? Just more of the type of content that made us a household name in watches, earned us some pretty cool accolades along the way, and helped make so many people fall in love with watches to begin with. You might even see a few old, familiar names reappear from time to time. You’ll just have to wait and see.
So what’s next? The edit team will grow. We’ll continue along with our award-winning limited editions (congrats to the 99 people who got one of our latest – the now-sold-out Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – I am fully obsessed with mine) and our fantastic digital-first insurance program, which remains the bar by which all others are measured, while the core of the business will return to where we began.
Does this mean we’ll never sell watches again? I wouldn’t say that. I would just say that since I first started this company in 2008, the world of watches has come a long way, and as always, we want to be ahead of the curve. What we’ve done over the past few years simply wasn’t that. So for now, we’re gonna take a beat and return to our roots and focus on what we do best – writing about watches – as we plan what might come next. And trust me, something will come next.
Until then, thank you for reading, and stay tuned for some live, in-person events to come very soon in the NYC area. See you in the comments section!
– Ben
Hodinkee
