F.P. Journe and Chanel buy watch brand Ebel for 66.5 million dollars
Movado is selling 95 per cent of the Swiss heritage brand to a group led by Montres Journe with Chanel and Pierre Jacques. Le Corbusier's Villa Turque is part of the deal.
Archive image · Photo: Françoise Sigrist-Friche / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
US watch group Movado is parting with the Swiss brand Ebel: an investor group is taking 95 per cent for 66.5 million US dollars, Hodinkee and FashionNetwork report. It is led by Geneva-based Montres Journe SA, the company of watchmaker François-Paul Journe, with Chanel and industry executive Pierre Jacques, formerly head of De Bethune, who is set to become Ebel's CEO. Movado keeps 5 per cent. Closing is expected in the coming months.
Trademarks, inventory and other assets – including the Le Corbusier-designed Villa Turque in La Chaux-de-Fonds – will first be moved into a new Swiss subsidiary. Ebel was founded in 1911, belonged to LVMH from 1999 and to Movado since 2004. In the 1980s, Don Johnson wore an Ebel chronograph as Sonny Crockett in 'Miami Vice'.
According to FashionNetwork, Journe said it is about "the product, the product, the product". Frédéric Grangié, president of Chanel's watches and fine jewellery division, spoke of confidence in the brand's long-term potential. According to Hodinkee, Chanel already owns 20 per cent of F.P. Journe.