YouSaid · the spoken record

Benjamin Clymer

lines on the record: 94
first: 2023-04-28
most recent: 2023-04-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Tag Hoyer, Aqua Racer, a tag hoier, Monaco, even those are great watches. Carreras, they're a little bit more money, but great watches.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And there are people out there that really know watches, and then there are people out there that really don't and pretend to understand the source. I mean, going back to journalism school, like know your source, know who's saying what and why, know who's a retailer of so-and-so, know who owns 20 of these, so they're trying to build it up, really understand why people are saying things that they are.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would certainly echo all that, but I would also say listen to actual experts in a field, not the guy you found on YouTube or the gal you found on Instagram or TikTok. There's so many people out there that are purporting to be experts in this space. On social media, YouTube, TikTok, et cetera, that have no idea. I mean, they're just kids that think they understand things. And to be One of those kids”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have a Grail watch. That's it. You're done. Probably not. Where do you go from there? Exactly. I mean, that, so that's the listen. That's the same problem with the.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's just, I mean, as Jeff said earlier, really earliest in this session, it's just supply and demand. There's a lot more guys that want a Nautilus or an aquanaut because they know what it is or a daytona. Nobody's ever heard of a Hanrooks gunsturbion from Longbeck. Even if it is that much. Oh my God.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably more. I mean, I know a website that would probably be able to tell you. I think we covered it. In fact, I know we covered it when it came out. A buffet.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People that bring a trailer. Let me list it for you. So that's where that's going. That's really funny. GT3 stick ship touring. It was the Right, no wing but the stick, which is It really is nowhere. It really is. It's”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Shop in LA, it's bonkers. So tying it all together, Hannah was actually my editor of one of my very first freelance jobs. Oh, no kidding. At Forbes. At Forbes, exactly. But not for watches. She was editing a literary blog, like a book blog. And I was writing for that, unpaid to be true. Oh, that's crazy. But I just wanted, I wanted to buy land Forbes. So she's amazing. But yeah, so I'm really into cars and I spent a little bit of time and a lot of money doing that during COVID. But that's what I'm into. I'm into finding these things that have direct connections with interesting people and keeping them going.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Garage find. They call it a barn find, but it was in a garage in Rome. All original. All original untouched. It was on Bloomberg a few weeks ago. My friend Hannah wrote that story.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“330 GTC. A slight exaggeration of my role in that. So I was working with somebody that was helping to do it. So I wasn't rebuilding a business. This was a little”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, of course. 15 years ago But I mean, again, so like the Tykan, I'm sorry, the cayenne was the year 2000. Right. So that's 23 years ago. The Taikan, which is the electric car, was probably, what, six years ago, five years ago? Not even? I think it's less than that. It's a little bit like Paul McCartney, right?”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Put them on, and it just kind of you got to buy what you like. But they had a pretty strong year. Rolex has a new titanium watch, the Yacht Master in Titanium. I really.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Oris Kermit was a fun one. And I think echoing what Jeff said, it was my first time there because my daughter was born last year and then COVID, so three years. So it had been four years since I was in Switzerland. And you've gone to ones before. Oh, for 15, 20 years, yeah. So getting back there and seeing people still appreciate what we're still doing. I've been doing this for 15 years. This is not like a two-year-old startup. So exciting to feel that energy and that appreciation again, definitely, in person. But in terms of product, look, Langa, we've talked about a lot. They make some of the best watches on Earth. They introduced one watch, and they're only doing a hundred of them.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yesterday Kermit the Frog. That was, I was going to say. Yesterday we had Kermit the Frog, who I think trumps everybody. Yes, that frog was on”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“John is an amazing person. He's the most well spoken, most creative, honest thinker of anybody. And I say that lovingly. Like, he's just got a different mind than the rest of us, truly. And, you know, we were recording it. We're like, okay, like this is going to be special for us. But this little watch blog, three guys sitting in a WeWork, you know, sure. And we put her online and it blows up. I mean, it just explodes. And then from there, JJ Reddick, basketball player, who was a friend of mine at the time as well, still is, and said, oh, like, I would do that. He was into watches. And then John Goldberger.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I said, who I went to Columbia with Will, who's still with us. I said, actually, I got a video guy right here. And so we went, we were on Varick Street. We went over to a place called Little Prince, which is a little cafe there on Spring, or Prince rather. And we walked in and we said, hey, I got John Mayer coming here in 20 minutes. Can we shoot? And they were like, sure, we're not open yet. We don't really care, you know. And so we shot for an hour, one camera, one cameraman, and we just talked about watches. No makeup, no anything, no, you know, his assistant wasn't there. And it just became internet magic in a bottle as things can happen, you know, can do. Well, it was.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He just knocked off 3 He used to roll pretty heavy with stuff, not so much anymore just for security reasons, but to our credit, the first really the second person we ever hired at Hodinki was a full-time videographer.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, we'd always talked about doing a video together of some kind, but never premeditated, never storyboarded or anything like that.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so kind of taking a step back. In 2012, when I launched Straps Online to sell straps. I got an email that said, Hey, John Mayer here, love what you're doing, let's hop on the phone. Everyone's like, okay, I wonder who this is, some guy named John Mayer, you know, some accountant in Texas named John Mayer. So get on the phone, turns out it's John Mayer, the rock star. And we just became kind of fast friends. We were about the same age. At the time, we were both living a really weird life. Mine was on the road traveling around for watches, taking pictures, writing. He was a natural rock star. And we just became like true, true, very close friends very quickly. And so in 2013, he called me and he's like, hey, I'm in town doing Letterman or Leno or something like that. I've got a bag full of watches. Do you want to just like record a conversation about watches? And I said, sure.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a different corner of the market. It's a very real corner. Those are really trading for sure. He tends to, he designs it. He does the setting and all the stonework, but the movement is generally... He started as a jeweler. Yeah, look, he's Jacob the Jeweler. He's the guy in all the rap songs, literally. So it's a different corner of the market, but a very real one. And like, you know, he is selling those watches for crazy numbers all day.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah, easily. For sure. I mean, his wristwatches, like just generic wristwatches, now trade for about $600, $700. Generic.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He can't give up 10. He can't take one watch out of the line of 10 per year. And these watches are phenomenally expensive at new. And they're worth even more kind of secondhand. But his watches, as Jeff said, are just, to me, it's the end game. It's a great story.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Man himself while he was still painting. You know that. Roger in particular, and I'm lucky enough to own one. I've known him for forever. His story is amazing. He makes 10 watches per year. Roger Smith. All by hand. He does not own one of his own watches.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A 6263 Mark II oyster, Paul Newman, which is kind of like the big bad Paul Newman. I had one of those. I sold it too soon. Wish I still had that. But a gold Paul Newman I've never had. That'd be something fun. But these are crazy watches, you know? I mean, really expensive watches that I would like, I don't live in Manhattan anymore. I live upstate. Those just don't fit my lifestyle anymore. When I lived in Manhattan and it was kind of out and about, it kind of made sense. But now as a father in particular, it just doesn't compute the same. Terrible for chopping water.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the very first ones. Those were trading in the mid twos forever. The minute I could afford one, I kind of hemmed in hot, and now they're trading for about $800 to a million.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's a few. I mean, there are several, really. You wouldn't be surprised to learn. A 348 paddock, which is their first self-winding perpetual calendar, in particular in white gold, those were kind of trading in the mid-200s for a long time.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, look, you can buy a langa. You can buy a patac. You can buy a lot of stuff for $80,000. You get the platinum bracelet, which is expensive for sure. So it's a...”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I prefer the new one, honestly, and I may end up going for it. It's great. That one I really disliked in 2013 when it launched, mostly because I was sour. I was sour that they didn't give us the steel watch with the ceramic bezel. That was the big thing. That came out in 2016, got that. So that's a watch I've just weirdly never owned, which is strange because I love platinum watches. I love Rolex and I love the Daytona. I just never did it. And now, you know, we'll see.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Weirdly, the watch that I really kind of hated when it came out, and now I love and I'm just never pulled the trigger as the platinum Daytona. I'm a hardcore Daytona guy. I'm with you. I just never was actually angry. Which color company?”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's too amazing. As I was terrified about Got it $10,000 watch. It's both an entry level and exit level, if that makes any sense. Like some of the wealthiest guys I know that have owned every paddock, every long, whatever, they end up wearing a handwound moonwatch. And I guarantee you, when I retire from whatever this is, that's the watch I will wear every day. Handwound moonwatch.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No question Outside of something like that, look, the Moonwatch, the Han-1 Moonwatch for $7,000. You can buy it on Houdini all day and get it. It is the best watch in the world for that kind of price”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's how I would advocate for the reshard meal if you're chopping me. Always the re-meal. Just go back to the reshard meal. Go straight off a half million dollars when you're act Yeah, I mean, my favorite watch is the Omega My Grandfather gave me. No surprise there. Like, that's the one. As I said, I put it on”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Secondhand. The Nautilus and the I'm sorry, I keep saying Aquina. Nautilus and Roy Oak, if I may say, I think they belong on bracelets. They were conceived on bracelets by Gerald Genta. So one's on strap, I haven't had a super strong affinity towards, but those on bracelets, I think, are just fantastic. They're not a Rolex.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's what they're called. They wear so amazingly on your wrist. And it's just, it really is just, I think, like the chicest, most elegant watch a man or a woman can wear. I mean, I've loved them forever. I bought one as recently as a month ago, two months ago. It's just an amazing thing. And then all of a sudden, they're actually cool. And I think 10 years ago, they were not cool. And that was kind of fun. But it's a lot more fun when they are cool. And people know what they are and people are excited to see a royal oak on your wrist. And then you've got our friend John Mayer, who's very close with them. And Ed Sheeran and Kevin Hart, all these kind of cool, interesting people started to get kind of hip to the Royal Oak thing. And now it's fun. It's part of like a cultural phenomenon.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, he could. It's that experience. You see what really goes into this stuff and you fall in love. And then the Royal Look in particular, the jumbos, the 39mm watches, where jumbos.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah, early one. Box paper is the whole thing. First of all, AP was the first high-end manufacturer ever visited. So that opened up my eyes to what watchmaking could be, if that makes any sense. So just to see how a Royal Oak is finished, polished the casements of something.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, it was my first high in watch. I bought two Rolexes, and then after that, I saved up when I bought a vintage AP, an A series Royal Oak. This is probably 2010.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, no. This is a rose global one. This is a normal one before the blue one. And it was sitting in the case, and that's it. Just there. I'll take that. And that watch at its peak was probably over $400,000.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would say pre COVID. Before COVID, it was not a concern. It really wasn't. Okay, Daytona, you knew you'd get that, I'm sorry, a Nautilus, maybe you'd get that, but it wasn't that way. I mean,”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Watch place over there. Hey, Well, I mean, it's the uniformity of taste at this point. And I'm going to blame it on Instagram, my friends at Instagram. You know, it's just so many people posting the same stuff over and over again. And five years ago, nobody about the Nautilus or the Aquanauta. I mean, there were good watches, and we all liked them, but it wasn't a big deal at all. And people were buying what they liked. And then all of a sudden, people say, wait a minute, I can buy a Patek at 20 and sell it for $60, sell it for $160, which the Nautilus was trading at for a second. Really? 5711A. And so that changed the dynamic completely. It used to just be like, hey, I like this thing. I'm going to buy it. I may make money. I may not. Then it became, if you're not making money, you're a fool. And that's how a lot of people in finance. Is it just fine?”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But yeah, Rolex is a different thing. And I want to be totally concise here. So, like, when we say Rolex CPL, the dealers are mostly going to be doing this stuff. And the dealers set the prices. It's not like Rolex set the prices. So what's in it?”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Makes much more sense. Yeah, exactly. The ticket price is so much higher. With Rolex in particular, I think it's important to know. You get”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly right. So, I mean, as of today, it seems like they will not get into CPO, and that is not surprising to me, really.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a real business, but we're still not Tournex. We're still not Bloomberg. We're still not something like that that is ubiquitous in a great way and really has the kind of the certainty of its future. We want to continue to push and challenge what the luxury watch industry and what all industries kind of think of when they think of retailers. We are a retailer, we are a media platform, we're a community platform. We host events. We're an insurance product. We are a strapware brand. We make things that say Hodinki on them. We are all these things. And that's exciting to me.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I want to be clear. So the business was a media platform with a little bit of e commerce that was basically three people until 2015. Then we raised our first venture capital. We were probably 10, 20 people. Now we're 130, 140. So it's bigger now.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Warby Parker of watches, which is not. Is it the glossier of watches? It's none of that. It's something else entirely. And I think what the ambition is here is to become kind of really the global leader of watches content and commerce and really be watches 360. Do we want to ensure your watches? We want to help you buy and sell them. We want to sell you straps. We want everything to exist in watches on Houdinki. And we're getting there. And I think that's what's so exciting about it. And I think to Jeff's point, like I view really all brands as one or two things, you're either a challenger or you're an incumbent. And I think like a Tourneau, which is an amazing business and one I've got a lot of love for, like they're an incumbent business. They've been around forever. They're now owned by Booker. We, to some people, are probably an incumbent, but we're not. Like this, as Jeff said, this, I came from nothing. This business came from nothing. And the way that we view everything we do is from the mind of a challenger. We want to continue to push and continue to change things.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Level, yeah, look, I mean, look, there are a lot of, and look, it's funny you say competitors, these are all our friends, we get coffees with them all the time. Switzerland, Torno, Buchare, like these are great world-class retailers. We have a lot, like they do stuff that we can never do. And I think we do stuff that they can never do, you know? But there's nobody that competes with us directly in everything we do. And I think that's what makes us so special, frankly. This is a truly unique business, a piece unique, if you will. And, you know, so many times over the years, people said, oh, well, well, well,”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Blazing a trail to the jungle. I'm with him $75. Truly. So Jeff is referring to a post that I was writing about watches. I was being paid $75 a post. Yeah. Truly.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If I like the Air Maxes that come in the mail to me, I keep them. If I don't, I send them back. I get a refund in three days or five days. And that's fine. And so taking these very normal 21st century e-commerce practices and applying them to watches is not that crazy, but we were the first and still we remain one of the few who does it far-fetched does it. Mr. Porter does it. Great e-tailers like that.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We can't have them wearing it around. You try it on if it's not for you, you send it back. Look, I think what we did with the Hodinki shop in 2017, we took, look, the brands that I hold in high regard are no surprises, and they're not unique to me. It's Apple. It's Nike. I mean, I wear AirMaxes almost every day. If I like the Air Maxes I get those are good ones.”
2023-04-28 · Masters in Business · Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source