Hodinkee Winds Down Its Commerce Program, Returns Focus to Content

The wristwatch publisher Hodinkee will drastically reduce its commerce operation and return its focus to editorial content, according to a memo shared publicly by Hodinkee chief executive Ben Clymer on Wednesday. 

Clymer stated that the company will stop adding pre-owned watches to Hodinkee or Crown, as well as new models to its watch business. However, the company will still release limited editions and could resume marketplace sales.

“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,” Clymer wrote in the post. “Sorry, but you’re gonna have to live with fewer emails offering $300 off your next pre-owned Rolex hitting your inbox.”

The reversal in strategy marks a return to the roots of Hodinkee, which originally launched in 2008 as a website for watch enthusiasts. In February 2021, with the financial backing of The Chernin Group, Hodinkee expanded into a watch retailer through its acquisition of the secondhand marketplace Crown & Caliber.

But the plan soon encountered significant headwinds, as ADWEEK first reported in April. Over the next three years, Hodinkee never achieved profitability and underwent multiple rounds of layoffs.

The challenges the company faced underscored the difficulties of its business model, whose premise of blending editorial with retail proved highly complex.

Clymer did not respond to a request for comment.

Testing the model

With its purchase of Crown & Caliber, Hodinkee sought to embody the content-to-commerce business model, in which its editorial content brought wristwatch fans to the site and converted that audience into consumers. 

The model, while intuitive, quickly ran into a series of complications.

For instance, the market for secondhand watches, which skyrocketed during the pandemic, began declining in value in early 2022. As a result, Crown & Caliber found itself underwater, having paid top-market prices for watches and seeing their value decline.

Additionally, the company had to contend with an industry-wide decline in digital advertising spend, which hampered its media business. These declines, along with expensive investments in a brick-and-mortar location, weighed heavily on Hodinkee’s balance sheet. 

The combined company was unprofitable in 2021, 2022 and 2023, resorting to multiple rounds of layoffs to reduce expenses.

Hodinkee also faced issues related to audience trust in its effort to ramp up the commerce element of its business. The publisher had historically recommended watches to its audience and generated affiliate revenue when those recommendations led to purchases.

After Hodinkee acquired Crown & Caliber, it began recommending more Crown & Caliber watches. This made audiences suspicious that Hodinkee was promoting Crown & Caliber inventory rather than recommending the best products on the market.

These issues, along with declines in traffic and negative audience feedback, led Hodinkee to reconsider its commerce operation and return its focus to content.

“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,” Clymer wrote. “And trust me, something will come next.