When Hodinkee becomes part of Watches of Switzerland, the watch blog won’t be taking its current CEO, Jeffery Fowler, or secondhand site Crown & Caliber with it.

A Watches of Switzerland spokesperson says that Crown & Caliber—purchased by Hodinkee in 2021—has been sold to a new owner, which he declined to name. Watches of Switzerland already owns a secondhand business, Analog:Shift, which it acquired in 2020.

Upon announcing its Hodinkee acquisition last week, Watches of Switzerland said that Hodinkee founder Benjamin Clymer (pictured) would serve as the site’s president going forward, and that it would hold on to Hodinkee’s insurance division.

“It’s a robust business, and we think there’s a lot of opportunity there to grow,” Clymer tells JCK’s Victoria Gomelsky, noting it underwrites $750 million in watches a year.

In July, Clymer had announced that Hodinkee was returning to its roots as a news and information site and would cease most retail activities. That shift will continue under Watches of Switzerland, he says.

“The decision to focus on the journalistic side of things is for the sake of not only ourselves but for the sake of the industry,” says Clymer. “We would have made that decision either way.”

Otherwise, he doesn’t expect big changes.

“We’ll keep this office in SoHo [in New York City] where we’ve been for almost 10 years now,” Clymer says. “The edit team and most teams will be completely unchanged. We’re actually going to be growing those departments. There will be investment into the editorial side of the business, into the media side of the business, and the event side of the business.”

The sale has raised concerns of a conflict of interest, especially now that Rolex controls one of Watches of Switzerland’s major competitors—Bucherer, which owns Tourneau. (Watches of Switzerland remains a significant Rolex retailer.)

Clymer pledges that Hodinkee will function as an “independent business.”

“That’s really paramount in the understanding here,” he says. “That’s not to say we won’t be able to partner [with Watches of Switzerland] here and there, but Hodinkee will exist as Hodinkee, just as it is today.…

“We will still cover brands that aren’t sold by Watches of Switzerland,” he adds. “We will still cover other retailers just like we always have. We have investment from LVMH right now. We cover everybody still, not just them. They get no special treatment.”

Clymer hasn’t headed the site since 2020, when he passed the CEO title to Toby Bateman—who spent most of his tenure in England, unable to leave because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Bateman was succeeded by Fowler in 2022.

“I needed to take a break,” Clymer says. “Whatever perception there is of my success, it came at a cost, personally. In 2020, after working so hard for so long, I was very, very pleased to hand over the reins to [a CEO and stay] involved with the business.”

Now Clymer is happy to take full control again.

“A big part of this for me is just ensuring that the company is super-sound and allowing me to put my touch back on things,” he says. “In five years, my goal is to still be leading the business…. A big part of this deal is to ensure the long-term viability of Hodinkee, for the sake of the industry and for the sake of every watch lover around the world.”

News reports have portrayed Hodinkee’s $46 million acquisition of Crown & Caliber as one of the site’s biggest missteps.

“The idea was really sound,” says Clymer. “There was a lot of stuff that obviously didn’t necessarily work out the way that we wanted to.”

The former Wall Street banker admits Hodinkee has weathered its share of turbulence, but hopes the Watches of Switzerland acquisition will bring much-needed stability.

“There are so many things that have gone right with Hodinkee, and I’m so incredibly proud of who we are. There’s many things that have gone wrong, but that’s life. And I think ultimately you land on your feet. What you do after things have been challenging says a lot about somebody.”

Additional reporting by Victoria Gomelsky

(Photo courtesy of Watches of Switzerland)

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