HSNY names Gregory Brown its executive director
The society founded in 1866 hands its education and preservation work to a member of ten years. He succeeds Nicholas Manousos, who led there for more than a decade. Carolina Navarro stays as deputy.
By Carat Capital
What changed
A member of ten years takes the chair. The Horological Society of New York has appointed Gregory Brown executive director. He succeeds Nicholas Manousos, who held leadership roles there for more than a decade. Carolina Navarro continues as deputy director.
What it means
- If you teach or fund watchmaking: Brown oversees the society's education and preservation work. That includes aid to individuals, grants to watchmaking schools and support for independent watchmakers.
- If you exhibit or speak in New York: The society says it plans larger-scale programmes bringing watch-industry figures together for discussions about horology. No date or venue is named.
- What this is not: A change of direction announced with a figure. No budget, programme size or membership number accompanies the appointment.
Key figures
| The society's founding yearby working watchmakers | 1866 |
|---|---|
| The organisation's agethe report's own description | 160 years |
| Items in its research librarythe Jost Burgi Research Library | 25,000+ |
| Brown's first year as a memberten years before the appointment | 2016 |
Source: The Horological Society of New York's appointment, announced on the society's own site on 14 October 2026 and reported by JCK Online on 15 October 2026. Raw bytes, 200, 1,048,348 bytes, and a saved copy, 200, 114,249 bytes. No compensation, budget or programme figure is disclosed.
A decade of membership first
The succession is named. Brown succeeds Nicholas Manousos, who held leadership roles at the society for more than a decade. Carolina Navarro, acting director during the transition, continues as deputy.
His background is nonprofit. Brown has more than two decades building entrepreneurial and nonprofit organisations and has been a society member since 2016.
Two horological credentials. He belongs to the Academy of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve. He also covered Baselworld and other trade events for TimeZone.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Appointee | Gregory Brown, executive director |
| Predecessor | Nicholas Manousos, leadership roles for more than a decade |
| Deputy | Carolina Navarro, acting director during the transition, continuing |
| Founded | 1866, by working watchmakers |
| Brown a member since | 2016 |
| Library | Jost Burgi Research Library, more than 25,000 items |
| Remit | Education and preservation programmes; international expansion |
Notes on this table
The two age statements agree and are both printed because they come from different places: the society's own site carries the 1866 founding, and the report describes the organisation as 160 years old. From 1866 to 2026 is 160 years, so the description and the founding year are consistent, on this paper's subtraction. Nothing else in this story carries a figure. There is no budget, no membership count, no programme spend and no stated target for the international expansion the society says it wants, and none has been supplied here.
Education is the job
Programmes come first. Brown will oversee the society's education and preservation work. He is also to widen its role in watchmaking abroad.
The society funds. Founded in 1866 by working watchmakers, it gives aid to individuals and grants to watchmaking schools. It also backs independents and runs classes and monthly lectures.
A library behind it. It runs the Jost Burgi Research Library. The collection holds more than 25,000 items on horological scholarship and history.
What to watch
- OngoingThe larger-scale programmes the society says it plans. No date, venue or size is published.
- OngoingWhether the international expansion produces a stated target. None accompanies the appointment.
- OngoingManousos' next role. The report says only that he held leadership roles for more than a decade.
The story so far
Go deeper
Corrections
Correction, 19 October 2026: an earlier version of this article said, in its Method, that the predecessor's name and tenure, Carolina Navarro's continuation, Gregory Brown's 2016 membership, his Academy and TimeZone details and the 25,000-item library figure were carried on JCK Online's report alone and not on the society's own page. That was true of the copy fetched at 06:05 EDT on 18 October, 1,048,348 bytes, which returned 0 hits for 'Manousos' and 0 for '25,000'. The society's announcement at the same address now carries all of them: re-fetched on 19 October, 1,027,765 bytes, 'Manousos' 1 hit, '25,000' 1, '2016' 1, 'Navarro' 3. The society's page is now cited for those facts beside the trade report. Where the stale claim came from: the society's page, as first fetched, did not yet print those details. What was right as published: every fact and figure in the article, including Brown's appointment, the 1866 founding, Manousos as predecessor and the library count. Found by this paper's standards desk on 18 October 2026.
What would change this call
A figure appearing. This is an appointment at a nonprofit with no published budget, no membership count and no programme spend, so the article reports an office changing hands and nothing about the resources behind it. If the society publishes its programme spend or its membership, the significance of the post becomes measurable and this piece will read as having understated or overstated it. There is no price here to be wrong about.
Why a society's executive director matters to a watch trade
The Horological Society of New York is not a trade association and does not represent brands, which is what makes the post it has just filled unusual in a business where most institutions are funded by the companies they speak for. It was founded in 1866 by working watchmakers, and the things it does now are the things a trade cannot easily do for itself: grants to the schools that train watchmakers, financial aid to individuals, support for independents who have no marketing department, classes, monthly lectures, and a research library of more than 25,000 items. The constraint on all of it is a small institution's capacity, which is why the executive director's job is substantially a fundraising and programme-building one rather than a curatorial one. The succession matters for a practical reason. American watchmaking has a documented training shortage, and the pipeline runs through a handful of schools whose intake is partly a function of who funds scholarships. An organisation that both grants to those schools and convenes the industry is one of the few places where that pipeline can be widened without a brand's permission. The society says the new director will work to expand its role internationally and to build larger-scale programmes, and has attached no figure to either ambition, so the test is whether the programmes appear rather than whether a target is met.
Method
Two independent doors were fetched in this run and saved as raw bytes. FIRST, the society's own site: hs-ny.org, 200, 1,048,348 bytes,. Greps against that saved copy: 'Gregory Brown' 3 hits, '1866' 8 hits, 'Executive Director' 3 hits case-sensitive and 3 hits under a case-insensitive sweep, confirming the same three. The society's own summary block reads 'The Horological Society of New York Announces Gregory Brown as Executive Director' and links to /news/2026/10/14/, which is how the 14 October announcement date was established - from the society's own URL, not from the trade report. UPDATED 19 October 2026: the society's own announcement, re-fetched at the same address on 19 October, 200, 1,027,765 bytes, now carries every fact this article first sourced to the trade report alone. Greps against those bytes: 'Manousos' 1 hit, 'more than a decade' 2, 'Navarro' 3, '2016' 1, 'Academy' 1, '25,000' 1. The 18 October capture, 1,048,348 bytes, returned 0 for 'Manousos' and 0 for '25,000'. SECOND, JCK Online's Take 5 column, 200, 114,249 bytes, in its section headed 'HSNY Names Gregory Brown Executive Director', with greps 'Gregory Brown' 5 hits, 'Nicholas Manousos' 1 hit, '1866' 1 hit, '25,000' 1 hit, '160-year-old' 1 hit; its feed entry, 200, 78,292 bytes, is dated Thu, 15 Oct 2026 16:30:14 +0000. ARCHIVE: 'HSNY' returns 0 hits in Carat Capital's archive, and the zero was checked against the schema first by printing a row of that file to confirm a whole-record search matches its fields. NEW, a first filing; this paper has never covered this organisation.
Sources
- Horological Society of New York, HSNY Announces Gregory Brown as Executive Director (the society's own announcement; carries the appointment, the predecessor, the deputy, the 2016 membership and the library count as re-read on 19 October 2026) 14 October 2026
- JCK Online, JCK Take 5: New Plumb Club Members, Indian Exports Rise, Personnel Moves (HSNY Names Gregory Brown Executive Director section) 15 October 2026