Chanel Expands Brand Portfolio and Regional Retail Footprint Through Strategic Watchmaking Acquisitions and New Boutiques

Business News Former AP CEO François-Henri Bennahmias Brought In As Consultant To Hublot Introducing H. Moser & Cie. x Saquon Barkley Pioneer Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Aventurine Limited Edition (Live Pics) Introducing The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Utility – Limited Edition for Hodinkee Consortium of buyers, including François-Paul Journe and French luxury group Chanel, buys 95% stake in Ebel for $66.5 million. E bel, once one of the most successful and top-selling Swiss watch brands, which has fallen into relative obscurity under the ownership of Movado Group, is being sold to a consortium of high-profile buyers, including François-Paul Journe and Chanel, who plan to revive the Ebel marque with hopes of returning it to its former glory. Movado Group, Inc. says it entered into a binding agreement to sell a 95% interest in the Ebel brand for $66.5 million to a strategic buyer group led by Geneva-based Montres Journe SA, with the participation of French luxury house Chanel and Pierre Jacques, a long-time industry executive. Jacques, who previously headed De Bethune for more than a decade, will take over as CEO of Ebel while Movado, with shares publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which purchased the brand from LVMH in 2004, will retain a 5% stake in the business when the deal is completed, the parties said in a statement. The agreement underscores the growing

In a recent announcement by the Movado Group, Ebel is set to be acquired by a strategic buyer group led by Montres Journe SA , with the participation of Chanel (partial owner of F.P. Journe) and industry veteran and ex-CEO of De Bethune , Pierre Jacques. The latter will serve as Chief Executive Officer of Ebel. The Group of investors have entered into an agreement with the American Movado Group. The transaction is subject to customary adjustments, and a 95% interest in Ebel will be acquired for USD 66.5 million – the Movado Group will retain a 5% stake in the brand. An important name in Swiss watchmaking, Ebel was founded in 1911 in La Chaux-de-Fonds – the company was named after the initials of the founder and his wife , Eugene Blum Et Alice Levy. The brand was remarkably successful in the 1970s and 1980s, in particular under the management of the charismatic Pierre Alain Blum. With its chic quartz watches, the company was still thriving while the quartz crisis hit the industry. Ebel was also manufacturing Cartier watches under licence since the 1970s. But because of unfortunate investments in other industries, Pierre-Alain Blum was forced to sell Ebel to Investcorp in 1994, which in turn sold it to LVMH in 1999. In 2003, the Movado group bought Ebel from the French luxury powerhouse. Two decades later, the brand changes hands again. The news represents an opportunity for the

In a surprise move, a consortium led by Montres Journe and comprising Chanel and Pierre Jacques, the former chief executive of De Bethune, has acquired Ebel from its longtime American owners, the Movado Group. According to the deal announcement, the consortium is buying 95% of Ebel for US$66.5 million, with the remaining shares to be retained by Movado. The three-party consortium evidently brings different skills to the table, including the financial firepower of Chanel, the watchmaking know-how of François-Paul Journe, and the operational and managerial expertise of Mr Jacques, who will run the brand solo. Movado, on the other hand, might be relieved to have unloaded Ebel, which it unsuccessfully tried to revive over its two decades of ownership. From left: François-Paul Journe, Efraim Grinberg of Movado, Frédéric Grangié of Chanel, and Pierre Jacques. Image – Pierre Jacques Once a high flying brand that was one of the biggest in Switzerland during its 1980s and 1990s heyday, Ebel was famous for its Sport Classique, often nicknamed “wave”, which featured integrated bracelets resembling a wave. Launched in 1977, the model propelled Ebel into the stratosphere, with its workforce growing 15 times and revenue reaching nine figures by the 1980s. Ebel was a luxury giant in the years just after the Quartz Crisis, and it was led during this time by Pierre-Alain Blum, grandson of its f

The opening look of Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel spring/summer 2027 show was a gauzy, sheer little dress—in white, not black, as the house so famously prefers—paired with Gabrielle Chanel’s own 2.55 handbag. It distilled Blazy’s approach one year into his tenure as artistic director: Rather than rewriting the house’s codes, he’s revealing new dimensions within them. Skimming the body with a feathery rosette blooming at the bust, the slip-like piece bridged Chanel’s past and present. It recalled Gabrielle’s beginnings as a seamstress in a lingerie atelier, setting the tone for a collection that folded the house’s history into the present. Blazy conceived the collection as a timeline, not literally to re-create Chanel’s past but to reveal its many layers. The blend of then and now (see the various “naked” and exposed underpinnings) reflected the way women dress: with a magpie’s eye for decades, mixing the ’30s with the ’50s, the ’90s, and whatever else feels right. A series of drop-waist skirts in a mélange of bouclé, wool, and brightly knitted fabrics nodded to Chanel’s pioneering embrace of the lowered waist, but Blazy brought them firmly into the present with “going-out” tops, tanks, and vividly embroidered jackets. These are familiar brand archetypes reassembled into something novel. Or, as Blazy put it, “Chanel-ized.” Fragments of Gabrielle’s joie de vivre were scattered througho

GRAND ARRIVAL: Two years after SKP entered the Wuhan market with a property that includes an outdoor luxury retail corridor, Chanel has finally unveiled its stand-alone store hoarding, a first for the central China city. According to posts shared by users on Xiaohongshu, the social commerce platform, Chanel ‘s future SKP door will live between Louis Vuitton and Cartier along the SKP K Avenue, a 1.5 kilometer-long pedestrian promenade that will have a total of around 40 stand-alone stores upon completion. The Wuhan store will be the second for Chanel in the central China region. The capital of Hubei province, the historical city of Wuhan is known as “the city of a thousand lakes” and counts a population of more than 13 million. You May Also Like SKP Wuhan will welcome the opening of Celine, Giorgio Armani and Prada, which will coincide with the launch of the WWD x SKP Global Fashion & Beauty Summit on Thursday. SKP Wuhan, the fourth location for the established department store franchise, is located in Wuchang District, a central cultural zone. “Wuhan, a city that has weathered the storms but is still full of positivity and optimism, is a city where its people stick together; it’s a place where people truly enjoy and celebrate life,” SKP said in a statement at the time. As China undergoes a prolonged market reset, luxury players are closing unproductive stores, exploring untappe