If you frequent Rolex Forums, you may have come across a thread about the recent article published by Hodinkee that features an abridged transcript of a telephone conversation between musician John Mayer and Hodinkee Founder Benjamin Clymer in which they discuss being amongst the first in the US to receive the coveted 2016 Cosmograph Daytona with the black ceramic dial shown in the photo below. 

2016 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 116500LN (photo: Rolex)

The byline of the article credits Mayer as the author and the conversation centers around how they feel about receiving the current 'it' watch before most. Very little attention is paid to the design, legacy or wear of the watch itself. Instead, they speculate how much this wristwatch would sell for on the secondary market and Mayer likens the release of this Daytona configuration to a software update for the iPhone released by Apple.

Members of the Rolex Forum were quick to pan the article and offer negative opinions about Mayer and Clymer based on the focus of the conversation. Mayer is no stranger to negative press, but Clymer was hit particularly hard as someone who has let his success get to his head.

The executive editor of Hodinkee took to the forum to plead his case to his detractors, stating that he received his Daytona based on the timeliness of his e-mail request to Rolex. He even included screenshots of his e-mails to validate his position in line. While it is still likely that Rolex showed him preferential treatment based on his massive platform and influence in the watch world, that is not something he should have to defend. After all, it is his years of hard work and dedication to Hodinkee that got him on that list.

What seems to have upset most of the negative commenters was the editorial content of the article itself. Hodinkee is known for quality content, so when they printed this transcript of a casual telephone conversation between friends, they opened themselves up to allow the readers to decide the tone and apply their own characterization to it. While the actual conversation wasn't inherently controversial, the way that people feel about celebrities and privilege certainly played a part in the backlash that followed its publication.

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