When Jesse Linevsky started as a freshman at Cornell University, he noticed an opportunity. As a student majoring in hotel management in Cornell’’s world-renowned School of Hotel Administration, he saw students all around him interested not only in business, but also in high fashion and the luxury goods market.
“This might be the only place on Earth that could have a successful watch club”, Linevsky said he remembered thinking as he looked around campus. And so he got to work.
Linevsky has been into watches since he was a kid, so the opportunity to turn his passion into a successful club was a worthy challenge for the business-minded student. He recalled a childhood trip to Switzerland as particularly transformative in developing his passion for watches.
“We visited a boutique and my mom said I should get a watch, thinking I could get one for a few hundred bucks. I bought one for $350. It had a Chinese movement, German design, but it got me thinking: what actually makes a watch?” Linevsky said.
From there, Linevsky was hooked, obsessed with learning everything he could about watches and the watch industry. He started reading Hodinkee and fishing around on eBay for watches, eventually picking up an Omega Bullhead from the 1970s.
Starting a Horological Investment Club
Eventually, Linevsky made his way to Cornell, where he realized he could leverage Cornell’s resources to turn his passion for watches into a full-fledged club on campus.
Linevsky leading a meeting of the Horological Investment Club at Cornell
He got to work, begging three of his friends to become officers to meet the minimum requirements for starting a club at Cornell. And so the Horological Investment Club at Cornell was born. The first few meetings drew attendance of only about 5-10 people, but interest and attendance has been growing rapidly.
“Funny enough, the people with the nicest watches don’t even show up,” Linevsky said, explaining that often these people are the ones who care least about watches.
Then, in May of last year, Linevsky got Christian Zeron from Theo & Harris to speak to the newly formed club. About 40 people showed up, and from the looks of the video Theo & Harris posted of the trip afterwards (below), so did the “nice” watches. Linevsky shows off his Seiko SKX 007 (“frankly, the best budget watch you can buy,” he says). Later, in an impromptu wrist check around the room during the club’s meeting, the camera zooms in on a Royal Oak Offshore in rose gold and a couple Rolex GMT-Master II 116710BLNRs (“Batman”).
“Finding speakers has been fun,” Linevsky said. “They’re all trying to figure out the younger market.”
Christian Zeron from Theo & Harris speaking to the club
Before Zeron from Theo & Harris, Linevsky also had John Sokol, a vice president with the Richemont Group, speak to the Horological Investment Club.
So what’s next for the Horological Investment Club?
First and foremost, they’re looking to get more exciting speakers from both the corporate and the dealer perspective.
“The reason we’re getting so much interest is because we’re interested in investing in watches, so the people that are interested in finance and investing are also coming,” Linevsky, now a sophomore at Cornell, said. “It’s called the ‘Horological Investment Club’ because it gets people interested and shows that it’s not just a rich man’s hobby, but something you can actually make money on.” Linevsky said he’s not aware of any similar clubs at other universities.
Recalling Zeron’s talk back in May, Linevsky said the group discussed a number of watches and brands that might represent solid investments. For example, the Rolex Explorer II had gone up about $2,000 in resale value in a matter of months, vintage Cartier from the “right” year presented solid value, and blue chip brands like Patek and Rolex presented generally safe investments.
And what’s next for Linevsky himself?
“I’m open to building a career in the watch industry,” Linevsky said.
But for now, Linevsky is most interested in being a college student and pursuing other interests. When we first spoke, he was heading off for his summer job in Yosemite National Park, and when I checked back in with him this January, he was heading out on another climbing trip.