Episode Details

JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates sit down with Jeffery Fowler, CEO of the influential watch website Hodinkee to learn how the company got its unusual name and to hear about the path that led him to it. Jeff also speculates on the reason mechanical watches inspire such lasting passion (they’re science projects wrapped in history projects wrapped in art projects), offers predictions for the booming pre-owned watch market, and explains why good retailers are the best brand ambassadors.

Sponsored by De Beers: institute.debeers.com

Show Notes

00:50 Victoria Visits Botswana

2:28 How Hodinkee Got its Name

5:29 From Harvard to Hodinkee

18:54 Consumers’ Love Affair with Watches

27:31 In Praise of Retailers

Episode Credits

Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky

Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet

Plugs: @jckmagazine; institute.debeers.com

Show Recap

Victoria Visits Botswana

Just back from a week in Botswana with De Beers, Victoria shares the highlights of an incredible journey that included a visit to the De Beers sorting facility, the jaw-dropping Jwaneng diamond mine, and Chobe National Park, where elephant herds still roam the savannah. She promises to recount more about her adventures in a future podcast.

How Hodinkee Got its Name

Victoria introduces Hodinkee CEO Jeffery Fowler, and Rob asks him to explain how one of the most influential voices in the watch world got its unusual name. Hodinky is the Czech word for “wristwatch,” Jeff explains. When company founder Ben Clymer launched his watch blog in 2008, he chose the word because it seemed unique enough to be memorable and quirky enough to spark curiosity. Double vowels were trending in the corporate world (Google, Goop, Yahoo), so he adjusted the spelling.

Since then, Hodinkee has grown into a powerhouse with its own ecommerce platform and an award-winning magazine.

From Harvard to Hodinkee

Jeff earned an undergraduate degree at Harvard and an MBA at INSEAD in France before joining LVMH, where he began his career as an assistant retail store manager for Louis Vuitton in London. From there, he moved to Tag Heuer, then Cartier, Tesla, and Farfetch, where he stayed spent six years overseeing businesses across North and South America before joining Hodinkee in 2022. He sums his career up as “an exciting, fun, adventure-filled journey.”

In late 2021, Jeff was taking a break from his career to spend time with his wife and three young sons when he got a call from a recruiter about Hodinkee. He admired Ben Clymer as a pioneer in bringing the watch world online—and doing it in an approachable way that emphasized storytelling, curiosity, and wit. But he remembered it simply as a blog. He was surprised to learn that the company had moved far beyond its original mission, becoming the world’s first online-only authorized retailer of watches in 2017 and more recently expanding to pre-owned watches.

Since joining as CEO, Jeff has helped Hodinkee advance its missio