F.P. Journe and Chanel to acquire Ebel in US$66.5 million deal
Movado Group announced on 8 October 2026 that it has entered a binding agreement to sell a 95 per cent interest in its Ebel brand for US$66.5 million to a buyer group led by Montres Journe SA, the Geneva company behind F.P. Journe, with the participation of Chanel and watch industry executive Pierre Jacques.
What has been agreed
Under the agreement, the buyer group takes 95 per cent of Ebel, with Movado — the New York-listed group behind Movado and Concord — retaining the remaining 5 per cent. Pierre Jacques, who spent more than a decade leading De Bethune, will become chief executive of Ebel and run the brand day to day. The transaction is subject to customary adjustments and is expected to close in the next few months; a 95 per cent equity interest in a newly formed Swiss subsidiary holding the Ebel business will then transfer to the buyers.
The package includes Ebel's trademarks, other intellectual property, inventory and certain assets dedicated to the brand — among them the Villa Turque, the Le Corbusier-designed house in La Chaux-de-Fonds that has long been associated with Ebel. Staff dedicated to the Ebel business within Movado will move across to the new subsidiary. Movado has said the sale will let it sharpen its focus on its core lines.
Chanel, which already owns a 20 per cent stake in F.P. Journe and holds interests in independent brands including Romain Gauthier and MB&F as well as in movement maker Kenissi, framed the investment as a long-term bet. "Ebel is one of the great names of Swiss watchmaking, with a rich heritage, a distinctive creative identity and a strong foundation for future growth," said Frédéric Grangié, president of Chanel's fine watches and jewellery division.
"Like Michelangelo and so many others after him: the product, the product, the product. Ebel has always stood for exceptional product, and I am delighted to contribute to its next chapter alongside my friends and partners." — François-Paul Journe
A storied name, dormant for two decades
Ebel was founded in 1911 in La Chaux-de-Fonds and grew into one of the largest names in Swiss watchmaking. Under Pierre-Alain Blum, the family firm's third-generation leader, the brand prospered through the quartz era: the Sport Classique, launched in 1977 with its integrated 'wave' bracelet, became one of the defining designs of the period, and at its peak Ebel employed more than 500 people at its Swiss manufacture. It made watches for Cartier, and it was the biggest buyer of Zenith's El Primero movements.
Its profile went wider still in the 1980s, when Don Johnson wore an Ebel 1911 chronograph as Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice — a watch that has since become a neo-vintage collecting target. The later history is one of drift: sold by the Blum family to the Bahrain-based investment group Investcorp in 1994, bought by LVMH in 1999, and acquired by Movado in a deal announced in December 2003 that valued Ebel at about US$47.3 million. The task of reviving the brand now falls to a group that combines high-end watchmaking expertise with significant financial backing.
What it means for buyers and sellers
Deals of this kind are usually felt first in the secondary market, because revivals turn collectors back towards the originals — the pattern now visible in the attention given to Universal Genève since its acquisition by Breitling. For Ebel, there is already evidence of focused demand: collector Alfredo Paramico sold much of his Ebel collection in a themed Phillips auction in 2024, and a vintage Sport Classic chronograph sold for CHF 17,145 at the same house that year. If the new owners deliver, more attention is likely to follow.
For owners, the sensible step is to establish what you have — model, reference, originality, condition and documentation feed directly into value, and revival headlines do not change that arithmetic, though they can change who is looking. For buyers, the usual discipline applies: the best of Ebel's back catalogue, from the wave-bracelet Sport Classiques to the 1911 chronographs, has a real collecting case, and moments like this are good times to check prices rather than assume them.
Sources
- Hodinkee — Business News: Movado Selling Ebel To F.P. Journe And Chanel In Deal Heralding Comeback Of Once Mighty Swiss Brand — www.hodinkee.com/articles/movado-strikes-deal-to-sell-ebel-to-fp-journe-and-chanel-in-deal-heralding-comeback-of-once-mighty-s
- SJX Watches — Breaking News: F.P. Journe, Chanel Acquire 95% of Ebel for US$66.5 Million — watchesbysjx.com/2026/10/fp-journe-chanel-ebel.html
- Monochrome — Industry News: F.P. Journe and Chanel Acquire 95% of EBEL from Movado Group — monochrome-watches.com/fp-journe-chanel-pierre-jacques-acquire-95-percent-of-ebel-from-movado-group/
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