Atlanta’s Crown & Caliber started with a cash deal in a parking lot. Now, the pre-owned luxury watch site has 78,000 transactions and a deal with another leader in the industry.
Hodinkee, a New York-based company that produces content on luxury watches, is buying Crown & Caliber after receiving a $40 million Series B investment, which made the deal possible. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Hodinkee, founded by Benjamin Clymer, is a playground of information for luxury watch enthusiasts. From podcasts and web posts to social media and magazine articles, the company is the leading content provider on the subject.
Crown & Caliber buys and resells luxury watches, adding transparency to an industry that was notoriously seedy, CEO Hamilton Powell said. The company built and scaled data in order to instantly value a watch, which they buy for that price and then resell on the website.
And it's worked. The company's has clocked about 12 million site visits — a long way from that first deal.
Back in 2013, Powell made his first sale among cars parked outside a Bank of America to a Georgia Tech student. He had no brand recognition, and the customer wouldn’t mail the watch or take a check. So Powell paid cash.
From there, Powell continued to build the e-commerce platform, focusing on the data behind the transactions and also care for the watches.
With about 77 employees in the Atlanta office, Powell said he has both data scientists and a watch repair team, putting Crown & Caliber at the intersection of modern and timeless.
All Crown & Caliber employees, including Powell, will stay with the company through the acquisition. Powell said he will continue in his role as Crown & Caliber founder, making sure the company aligns with his vision for it. The office will remain in Atlanta as well.
The first step of the acquisition will be integrating features from Crown & Caliber and Hodinkee on each other’s websites, Powell said. For now, he said both brands will remain intact and isn’t sure whether they'll morph into one name.
Hodinkee’s $40 million investment came from The Chernin Group and LVHM Luxury Ventures, which include football quarterback Tom Brady and musician John Mayer as investors. As part of that investment, Clymer stepped down as CEO but remained in the company as executive chairman. Toby Bateman now leads Hodinkee as CEO.
