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Initially added to the illustrious LVMH catalogue of luxury brands to compliment the already acquired TAG Heuer and Zenith watch brands, Ebel finally seemed to be back among friends and hopes were high for a new resurgence in the brand’s popularity worldwide. However, the Ebel story was to endure yet further difficulties as the marriage inside LVMH failed to rectify the downward slide experienced since the departure of Pierre-Alain Blum. Ebel seemed to operate successfully only under the command of a driven individual and this had been in it’s signature since the company had been founded in 1911.A driven man with a clear vision for the company stepped up in 2004 in the form of Ephraim Grinberg, head of the Movado group and a long time admirer of the Ebel brand and it’s philosophy, he jumped when the opportunity presented itself to acquire Ebel from LVMH.Ephraim Grinberg recognised that Ebel had been generating confusion among customers and it’s retail partners in recent years. There had been no clear corporate direction for some time and he was well aware where the key to unlock the potential of this great company lay; Ebel needed to become Ebel once more and not the wandering behemoth it had been allowed to become of late.He would oversee the refocusing of his designers on the classic sensuous lines of the Ebel ladies collections and the sophistication of the sporty collections aimed at the aspiring gent.Ephraim Grinberg also soon got his hands dirty by taking the plinth himself at the Ebel manufacture to address the workforce and break the news that for the company to have any possibility of survival, jobs would have to go. This hands-on attitude with an awareness of the responsibilities of restructuring was exactly what was required at that moment, and the job of turning around Ebel once more was underway.
As Ebel retraced it’s steps to the roots of it’s heyday, ‘The Architects of Time’ legend – unfathomably dropped by the more recent owners – was reintroduced and with the firm objective of having the marque seen as a status symbol, as a luxury and most certainly not as a fashion watch, a targeted campaign to bring in it’s existing customers and retailers commenced. Together with evocative advertising imagery and the enrolment of aspirational brand ambassadors and sporting icons Ebel struck out again to reclaim its place among the recognised luxury watchmakers.Under the direction of Ephraim Grinberg, the iconic models all received complete reworkings, redefining the watch while simultaneously retaining the instantly recognisable Ebel design cues such as the Ebel ‘Wave’, all of which brought the collections up to date and ready to grace the wrists of a new audience. Ebel was back.In its newest incarnation and under careful and brand-sympathetic leadership, Ebel has once again established itself as a manufacturer of high quality modern luxury timepieces with sophisticated feminine designs for the ladies in the Classic, Beluga and Brasilia collections and strong, masculine accents on the men’s sports watches such as the 1911 BTR Chronographs and new 1911 Tektron collections.Still under the ownership of Ephraim Grinberg’s Movado group, Ebel today develops and assembles its movements to the exacting C.O.S.C. chronometer standard and continues to encourage its designers to blend creativity with tradition to acclaim.This time, for the first time in a long while, the future of Ebel looks to be in good shape. It is a brand which has proven to flourish in a loving environment where there is a sense of history in the name and an understanding of the expectations of its’ evolving marketplace.It’s fascinating to observe how so many prestigious watchmakers have found their greatest successes have been achieved by remaining true or returning to the ideals of their founders a century or more ago. The history of the Ebel marque is a solid reminder of that fact.
