HODINKEE

From working on the shop floor at Louis Vuitton to holding executive roles at Tag Heuer, Cartier, Tesla and Farfetch, Jeffery Fowler shares his career advice on advancing through the ranks in luxury retail.

Fashion entrepreneurs need a new playbook to launch, scale and differentiate their companies, as regulations and rising costs mean performance marketing can no longer serve the critical role it once did for DTC brands. Finding the right positioning and capturing market share can mean going back to the brand-building basics, as BoF profiles of Gymshark, Hodinkee and Mejuri show.

Maximilian Davis, the buzzy British-West Indian designer will join Marco Gobbeti at the Italian luxury label; Farfetch’s Jeffery Fowler will join the watch company as it expands its e-commerce segment.

The executive handoff comes as the online destination for watch superfans looks to expand its e-commerce business, which has surpassed $100 million in annual sales.

The most valuable luxury brands are all over 100 years old, but under certain conditions investing in luxury start-ups can deliver stellar returns, writes Pierre Mallevays.

Toby Bateman, CEO of the content-and-commerce watch universe Hodinkee, explains how the growth of e-commerce and community-based retail is primed to shift the business of watches in the years to come.

Watch brands must work hard to capitalise on the increasingly important second-hand market, while digital platforms will need to sharpen their business models.

The company’s new leadership says it’s not just for ‘watch nerds’ anymore and is introducing more ambitious editorial content while extending its reach in the secondhand marketplace.

The online destination for high-end new and vintage watch fans, founded by Benjamin Clymer in 2008, is aiming to scale its content-meets-commerce model in a challenging watches market.

Check out this week’s new partners and openings on BoF Careers, the global marketplace for fashion talent.